MARRIAGE:
‘LET’S GO!’: Pope takes spin in
GUIDEBOOK:
St. Thomas More Parish couples take vows
priest’s donated Renault (186k miles)
Journalist offers ‘one-stop shopping guide to Catholicism’
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CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO Newspaper of the Archdiocese of San Francisco
www.catholic-sf.org
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SEPTEMBER 20, 2013
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Project Rachel: More than 200 mourners grieve lives cut short CHRISTINA M. GRAY CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO
More than 200 mourners sought the warmth of their faith and each other as they huddled together on a windy knoll at Holy Cross Cemetery on Saturday, Sept. 14, remembering children who lost their lives before, at or after birth. A Mass and healing liturgy are sponsored every two years by the archdiocesan Project Rachel ministry and cemeteries. The event welcomes anyone mourning a life interrupted by abortion, miscarriage or stillbirth as well other tragedies such as accidents, disease or crib death. San Francisco Auxiliary Bishop SEE PROJECT RACHEL, PAGE 18
‘Sanctity stronger than scandals,’ pope assures Rome clergy FRANCIS X. ROCCA CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
ROME – Acting in his capacity as bishop of Rome, Pope Francis offered words of encouragement to his diocesan priests, assuring them that recent and current scandals cannot overcome the church’s holiness and urging them to keep their vocations alive through love of God. The pope made his remarks Sept. 16 at a meeting with diocesan clergy in SEE POPE, PAGE 18
(PHOTO BY CHRISTINA M. GRAY/CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO)
Mourners bury leaves symbolizing children who lost their lives before, at or after birth at the Project Rachel shrine at Holy Cross Cemetery, Colma, on Sept. 14. Auxiliary Bishop William J. Justice presided at a bilingual Mass and later at a healing liturgy on the cemetery grounds.
Under Pope Francis, liberation theology comes of age FRANCIS X. ROCCA CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis’ Sept. 11 meeting with Dominican Father Gustavo Gutierrez was an informal one, held in the pope’s residence, the Domus Sanctae Marthae, and not listed on his official schedule. Yet the news that Pope Francis had received the 85-year old Peruvian priest, who is widely considered the father of liberation theology, has excited interest far beyond the Vatican’s walls. During the 1990s, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith conducted a lengthy critical review of Father Gutierrez’s work, and required him to write and rewrite articles clarifying some of his theological and pastoral points.
But within a single week in early September 2013, the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, published an interview with Father Gutierrez, an article by the theologian himself, and two articles praising his work – one of them by the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Father Gustavo the Faith, ArchGutierrez bishop Gerhard L. Muller. Following years of Vatican criticism of liberation theology under Blessed John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI, these events might seem to indicate a reversal of policy under
Pope Francis. It would be more accurate to say they represent the fruit of a long and painful process, through which the church has clarified the nature of its commitment to the world’s poor today. Liberation theology emerged in Latin America in the 1960s and 1970s. It finds in Scripture the principles and inspiration for working to free people from unjust social patterns and structures. Its starting point often is the concrete situation of Latin America’s predominantly poor people and how they understand the Scriptures as relating to them in their struggles for freedom from sin and from unjust social structures. SEE LIBERATION, PAGE 18
BISHOP THOMAS DALY: Named interim rector and president of St. Patrick’s Seminary PAGE 6
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INDEX On the Street . . . . . . . . .4 Wedding Guide. . . . 8-11 National, World . . 12-13 Opinion. . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Faith. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Community . . . . . . . . 20
2 ARCHDIOCESE
CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | SEPTEMBER 20, 2013
NEED TO KNOW SHRINE DOCENTS: A welcoming and orientation for the new docent ministry of the National Shrine of St. Francis of Assisi will be held on Sept. 29, 1:30-3 p.m., in St. Francis Hall at St. Mary’s Cathedral, Gough Street and Geary Boulevard. Doug Benbow, cathedral liturgy and docents director, with shrine rector Capuchin Father Harold Snider and shrine docents codirectors Norma Guerrero and Steve Cady, will greet prospective docents and discuss the ministry and the opportunities it affords to greet visitors from all over the world. The docents will begin their ministry on the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, Oct. 4. If you are interested in becoming a docent, fill out a contact form available at the back of the church or visit www. shrinesf.org and go to the “Docents” page. The shrine is located at Columbus Avenue and Vallejo Street in North Beach, San Francisco. DOCUMENTARY AT MERCY, BURLINGAME: Young women “born into unforgiving circumstances” are at the center of “Girl Rising,” a documentary film that is the “centerpiece of a global campaign to educate and empower girls,” said Carol Fraher, director of communications at Mercy High School, Burlingame. The film will be shown at Mercy Center, 2300 Adeline Drive, Burlingame, Sept. 26, at 7 p.m. The film spotlights nine girls from nine countries to showcase the strength of the human spirit and the power of education to change the world. “These girls need help, they are the most powerless inhabitants on the planet,” said director, Richard Robbins. “They have the least money, the least protection, the least opportunity, and amazingly, they have the most profound impact on changes we all want – less poverty, less injustice, less violence.” Each of the stories is narrated by a well-known actress, including Cate Blanchett, Selena Gomez, Anne Hathaway, Salma Hayek, Alicia Keys, Chole Moretz, Freida Pinto, Meryl Streep and Kerry Washington. After the film, Sister Edvine Tumwesigye, Brother Emmanuel Dan and Dr. Angela Limiyo attending from South Sudan will share stories of their amazing work with displaced women and girls in that remote and dangerous corner of the world. Contact Coleen at info@ mercybeyondborders.org or call (408) 799-9030. Suggested donation $10 adults, $5 students.
LIVING TRUSTS WILLS
(PHOTO COURTESY STEINBERG IMAGERY)
Effective social ministry stems from a strongly held faith – a reality especially true when dealing with young people and their acute “malarkey meter,” participants at Catholic Charities USA’s Annual Gathering in San Francisco on Sept. 14 learned in a parish ministry workshop introduced by Jesuit Father Thomas J. Massaro. He said Pope Francis is a model of such “servant leadership.”
Parish social ministry workers advised to ‘love people first’ CHRISTINA M. GRAY CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO
They may have thought they would leave with a list of concrete strategies for running effective service programs. But parish social ministry workers registered for “Becoming Instruments of Your Peace,” a daylong program held Sept. 14 in San Francisco at Catholic Charities USA’s Annual Gathering, were asked by the keynote speaker to look in the mirror first. “Look into your own heart,” said Jesuit Father Thomas J. Massaro, dean of the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University in Berkeley, leading the Parish Social Ministry Institute at the national conference. “This is my main point here today: None of us can be of much service to others unless we are at peace within ourselves and understand the priorities that guide us.” The CCUSA Annual Gathering brings Catholic Charities delegates from around the country together in one location every year to share knowledge and exchange ideas on reducing poverty in America. The Parish Social Ministry Institute program was designed for those called to develop and lead congre-
PROBATE
‘The work of our hands depends upon the state of our soul.’
gation-wide parish social ministry programs. Father Massaro, author of “Catholic Social Teaching in Action” and other books and articles on Christian social ethics, believes that parish ministry workers who do not know where their heart is will lack the interior structure to act effectively. “Your strategies will be off-kilter,” he said. “The work of our hands depends upon the state of our soul.” But becoming an instrument of God’s peace doesn’t happen magically, according to Father Massaro. “We must be grounded in the values of our faith,” he said. “I firmly believe that the peace we develop within ourselves is what we will have available to communicate outward to others.” Father Massaro said this is especially true when working with youth. “Teenagers and young people
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in general seem to have a ‘malarkey meter’ – they know when you are not walking your talk,” he said. Pope Francis serves as a near-perfect example of the kind of ‘servant leadership’ that comes naturally when actions are rooted in the values of our Catholic faith, according to Father Massaro. “Our pope has walked the talk of Catholic values and inclusiveness in an unprecedented way,” he said. “Saints and sinners are walking together in locked step, letting God sort things out along the way.” Reaching out with authenticity and inclusiveness to immigrants, prisoners, the poor, nonbelievers and even gays, the pope doesn’t insulate himself from the marginalized populations, according to Massaro. “It is important that we enter into solidarity with the poor,” he said, something that the modern world tries to insulate us from with ever-more gated neighborhoods and skywalks built that insulate from the world of the needy. “It is counter-culture to reject this national obsession with insulation,” he said. “Love people first,” he said. “Reserve judgment until after we have met a person’s needs. There should be nothing narrow about a faithcalled Catholic.”
CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone Publisher George Wesolek Associate Publisher Rick DelVecchio Editor/General Manager EDITORIAL Valerie Schmalz, assistant editor schmalzv@sfarchdiocese.org Tom Burke, On the Street/Calendar burket@sfarchdiocese.org Christina Gray, Content & Community Development grayc@sfarchdiocese.org ADVERTISING Joseph Peña, director Mary Podesta, account representative Chandra Kirtman, advertising & circulation coordinator PRODUCTION Karessa McCartney-Kavanaugh, manager Joel Carrico, assistant HOW TO REACH US One Peter Yorke Way San Francisco, CA 94109 Phone: (415) 614-5639 | Fax: (415) 614-5641 General information: information.csf@sfarchdiocese.org Advertising: (415) 614-5642 advertising.csf@sfarchdiocese.org Circulation: (415) 614-5639 circulation.csf@sfarchdiocese.org Letters to the editor: letters.csf@sfarchdiocese.org
ARCHDIOCESE 3
CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | SEPTEMBER 20, 2013
Cathedral flower festival: Evangelizing through art and beauty
Local floral designers such as Natasha Litsa communicate liturgical themes with flowers for the St. Mary’s Cathedral annual Festival of Flowers. Her 2009 “Out of Water� exhibit featured a 20-foot cascade of white flowers and glass globes suspended above the cathedral’s baptismal font.
The festival also serves as a centerpiece for the cathedral’s major fundraiser – the Assumpta Award gala – held in the Cathedral Event Center. This year’s recipient of the Assumpta Award is former San Francisco Archbishop George Niederauer. A private preview and reception for gala attendees begins at 6 p.m. on Oct. 4. Joseph Saligao and Yearsly Lizardo-Arce of Custom Floral Design Studio in Daly City will create the principal piece at the baptismal font this year. “It’s a big thing to be asked back,� said Saligao, who created a stir at the Assumpta gala last year with a fashion show of frocks made entirely of flowers. Included in the weekend program is “Sacred Treasures,� an exhibit showcasing vestments, vessels and other sacred objects gathered from the cathedral’s vaults as well as items from Old Mission Dolores; and the “We Remember� exhibit, a floral memorial to lives lost through violence, war and trauma. After the event closes on Sunday a “Share the Joy� team of volunteers will gather the blooms left behind to create new arrangements for patients at local hospitals and nursing facilities. The festival draws draws hundreds of people who have lived in San Francisco or the Bay Area all their lives but have never before stepped foot in the cathedral, mother church of the archdiocese. “This in itself makes the event worthwhile,� said Msgr. Talesfore. “People come in and are awestruck by the building and the flowers.� Benbow considers the festival a true evangelical event. “We are inviting all to enter and fall in love with the creator of all living things.�
cathedral flower festival in the country at St. Cecilia Cathedral in Omaha. “To my knowledge, we are the only two Roman Catholic cathedrals in the country hosting such events.�
Visit www.cathedralflowers.org for information on the flower festival. For ticket information on the Assumpta Award gala honoring Archbishop George Niederauer, call (415) 567-2020.
CHRISTINA M. GRAY CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO
Flowers have always added color and life to church occasions. But flowers are the occasion itself at the seventh annual Festival of Flowers Oct. 4-6 at St. Mary’s Cathedral, San Francisco. The weekend event is free and open to the public. Featuring elaborate floral art exhibits from commissioned floral designers along with smaller displays from local parishes and ecumenical faith communities, the festival is an opportunity for visitors to encounter God through the beauty of creation, according to Msgr. John Talesfore, cathedral rector. “Flowers, like all sacred art, inspire observers to become active contemplators of the beauty of creation,� said Msgr. Talesfore. “Whether people look at the exhibits spiritually or artistically, they are seeing the work of God.� The premiere of the festival coincides with the feast of St. Francis on Oct. 4. The festival is open to the public on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. for tours. A Gospel/Jazz Mass at 5:30 p.m. features the Bay Area Gospel/Jazz Mass Choir, Dave Scott on trumpet and saxophone, and composer Howard Wiley. On Sunday the festival welcomes visitors from 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m., although tours of the cathedral are closed during regular Mass times. A Choral/Organ Festival Concert at 3:30 p.m. featuring the cathedral choir concludes the weekend. Doug Benbow, cathedral director of liturgy and Christian initiation, is the creator and longtime artistic director of the festival. “I was inspired by Brother William Woeger, a liturgical designer respected for his local renovation work at St. Peter’s Church in the Mission and Most Holy Redeemer in the Castro,� he said. Woeger started the first
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CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | SEPTEMBER 20, 2013
Family names scholarship for late uncle priest TOM BURKE CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO
Father Jack Kavanaugh, who taught Latin at Serra High School and served as a pastor and priest in the Archdiocese of San Francisco for 65 years, died June 28 at age 88. Father Jack was one to “build strong relationships with his students,” said his niece Liz Anderson Tesi. “Father Jack had a knack for making friends and keeping them for a lifetime.” In honor of that loyalty, Father Jack’s family has begun the Father Jack Kavanaugh Endowed Scholarship Fund to benefit students at Serra. The Father Jack family will match donations until Kavanaugh a $25,000 sustainable fund is met. Donations can be sent to Junipero Serra High School, 451 W. 20th Ave., San Mateo 94403. “We are very grateful to Father Jack’s family for establishing this scholarship fund in his honor,” said Lars Lund, Serra president. “Over the course of six decades, Father Jack championed the cause of Serra High School like no other. His legacy is secure, especially in the hearts and minds of the countless Padres for whom his ministry made a tremendous difference for the good. Honoring his legacy by naming a scholarship fund in his honor will provide financial assistance to future generations of Padres who otherwise would not be able to afford the educational and spiritual benefits of a Serra education.”
JOE’S VERY SPECIAL: The class of 1946 from Immaculate Conception Academy got together for lunch at Westlake Joe’s May 4. “It’s right off the freeway and very convenient,” said classmate Bernice Johnston who sent me the good news. Among the ICA grads is Dominican Sister Dolores Calderwood, who taught at ICA and now in retirement lives at the school and supervises in the library daily. I bet books she read as a girl are still in the stacks. “We get together as often as we can,” Bernice told me. Pictured in the lobby of the famed Daly City restaurant are, sitting from left, Helen Baccaria, Joan Sisser, Josephine Jestadt, Mary Kelly, Sister Dolores, Pat Sienes, Bernice, Myra Mahoney, Betty Marzorini. Standing from left are Pat Becketti and Pat Kauser. Fathers founder Father Isaac Hecker in a recent bulletin: “The soul is created for God. Its happiness consists in the possession of God. It is no one’s fault but our own if we fail in obtaining God.” STEP RIGHT UP: I have one of those talking scales that tell you your weight when you stand on it. It’s much like having your weight guessed at a carnival minus the mustachioed barker. In any case, my diet must be working. Last time I got on the scale instead of telling me my weight, it said “Thank you.”
GO: Congratulations to Sara Delucchi, a 2013 Mercy High School Burlingame graduate now running cross-country and track at Chapman University in Orange. Sara was recruited for the sports by Chapman, an NCAA Division II school in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. Sara has run on the crosscountry and track and field teams all four years as a Mercy, Burlingame Crusader and served as team Sara Delucchi captain. Sara’s proud folks are Pamela and Thomas Delucchi. OUTDOOR DECADES: This year’s rosary rally with Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone among prayer leaders takes place Oct. 12, noon-2 p.m., U.N. Plaza, Seventh and Market streets, San Francisco. Celebration includes Marian hymns, recitation of the rosary and Benediction. Everyone is invited. (415) 480-9725; email info@rosaryrallysf.com; visit www.rosaryrallysf.com.
FULL-BORE: I’m a fan of writer Anna Quindlen and mostly because of her perspective. I heard the writer once tell of a time she was approached by a person who wanted to write a book. “What should I do,” the wannabe scribe asked. “Write it,” Anna fired back. The Pulitzer Prize winner explained that “doing” greatly outdoes getting ready “to do.” I’ve been a fan of “Man of La Mancha” since childhood and in a similar track have at times invoked this advice given by the Padre in a song from the show: “Yet if you build your life on dreams it’s prudent to recall, a man with moonlight in his hand has nothing there at all.” ANNIVERSARY: On Aug. 16, Ed and Carmela Gigliotti celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary. They were married at Sts. Peter and Paul Church in North Beach, and are longtime parishioners of Our Lady of Angels in Burlingame. SMILE: Thanks to Paulist Father Dan McCotter, pastor, Old St. Mary’s Cathedral/Holy Family Mission, for passing on these sunny words from Paulist
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CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | SEPTEMBER 20, 2013
Speaker’s message to young: Gospel message ‘never old’ TOM BURKE CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO
“Ha! How old do you think I am?” Mary Bielski fired back when asked in an email interview if she thinks she might ever “age out” of being able to reach youth and young adults on topics of theology and relationships. Bielski is a headline speaker at “Got Love?” Oct. 12 at Church of the Nativity, Menlo Park. “I am not sure that is possible,” the Marquette University graduate said about getting too old to communicate a Gospel message she calls “never old or outdated.” What’s important is being effective “in engaging and relating this truth,” she said. Mother Teresa and Pope John Paul II, no youngsters when they drew thousands of “cheering and screaming” people many years their younger at World Youth Days, are perfect examples, Bielski said. “It was because they spoke truth and passion into the deepest parts of the teen heart. And if teens and young adults encounter the love of Christ – not just a good speaker or funny story but real transformational truth and power of Jesus – they will be changed and I keep my job.” Bielski said all she does is “point youth and young adults to Jesus.” Bielski takes her charge seriously and is constantly working to deepen her spiritual, intellectual and pastoral formation. She is currently pursuing a graduate degree at Notre Dame Seminary Graduate School of Theology in
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855-842-8001 Carmela A. Dupuis Executive Director
The program will address such questions as ‘What is love? Why did God make us male and female? What is sex all about? What is the purpose of my life?’
Mary Bielski
New Orleans. “As I travel, I am not only meeting teens that want to grow in depth, but adults. So I wanted to grow deeper theologically and personally to serve the church.” Bielski, a one-time pharmaceuticals salesperson, said it’s simple about why she chose teens and young adults as her audience. “I used to be one,” she said. Bielski said she left pharmaceutical sales because her call was to “sell a much more powerful remedy – love.” For years, including eight in Catholic schools, Bielski “missed the most profound message of Christianity – mercy and love” and struggled with her faith in high school and college. She remembers being great out front - varsity sports, student counsel, and awards – but hiding her struggles. “I knew in my head God’s love, but I didn’t have a personal relationship,” she said.
She finally came face to face with God after a weekend with Carmelite sisters in whom she saw “an intimate and living faith,” one she wanted also for herself. “I left that weekend telling God: ‘I want to know you like that.’ I stopped partying, started going to daily Mass, met a community of faithful Catholics, added theology as a second major and fell in love with Jesus.” Her talk Oct 12 will cover “the two hottest topics in America: God and sex,” she said. Questions addressed will include “What is love? Why did God make us male and female? What is sex all about?” “We are going to be talking about real issues in the human heart, God’s plan for human relationships and sex, and the healing power of his love.” Bielski, who has spoken to more 60,000 teens and young adults during the last 10 years, said she is “excited to be coming to the Archdiocese of San Francisco.” The purpose of her talks is one’s “relationship with Christ” and “encountering the love of Jesus.” “Catholics do not need information, they need revelation,” Bielski said. ‘GOT LOVE?’: Program most suited for high school through young adult men and women. Registration $30. Day begins with Mass at 9 a.m. at Church of the Nativity, Oak Grove Avenue and Laurel Street, Menlo Park, and continues until 4:30 p.m. (650) 269-6279; visit www.gotlove.info; email info@gotlove.info.
6 ARCHDIOCESE
CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | SEPTEMBER 20, 2013
Bishop Thomas Daly to lead seminary in interim post VALERIE SCHMALZ
Bishop Daly ‘believes that St. Patrick’s can be one of the outstanding seminaries in the United States.’
CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO
San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone appointed San Jose Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Daly as interim rector and president at St. Patrick’s Seminary & University, the archdiocese announced Sept. 16. Bishop Daly is expected to hold the position for up to a year while the Society of St. Sulpice, the traditional administrators of the seminary, work with the seminary board of trustees to search for a permanent president and rector, officials said. Bishop Daly At the same time, Jesuit Father John Piderit, former Loyola University-Chicago president and president of the Catholic Education Institute, was appointed vice president for administration. Father Piderit is a major voice for restoring Catholic identity in Catholic education as president of the Catholic Education Institute. He continues as vicar for finance at the Menlo Park seminary, a position he has held since late 2012. Sulpician Father Gladstone Stevens will continue as vice rector and dean of men. Basilian Father Anthony Giampietro, appointed in the past few months, is executive vice president for advancement and academic dean. Bishop Daly “believes that St. Patrick’s can be one of the outstanding seminaries in the United States,� said seminary provost Melanie Morey. As
SEMINARY PROVOST MELANIE MOREY
St. Patrick’s Seminary & University, Menlo Park president of Marin Catholic High School from 20032011 and Archdiocese of San Francisco vocations director from 2002-2011, Bishop Daly “has a leadership record of growing an institution,� Morey said. “He has a deep and abiding love of vocation education and a great vision for the seminary moving forward,� Morey said. Bishop Daly, 53, “has been active in generating priestly vocations for many years,� the archdiocese noted in its announcement. Fifteen of the 93 seminarians studying at St. Patrick’s are from the Archdiocese of San Francisco. Bishop Daly is a graduate of St. Patrick’s and serves on its board of trustees. Bishop Daly, ap-
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pointed to the San Jose diocese by Pope Benedict XVI in 2011, will continue to serve as vicar for clergy and in the area of Catholic education, the Diocese of San Jose announced. Bishop Daly’s passion for finding priestly vocations came through whenever he spoke about the topic during his time as vocations director in the San Francisco archdiocese. “Pray for vocations. You can’t build a vocation culture unless you have a culture of prayer,� thenFather Daly said in a 2011 interview with Catholic San Francisco. “Second, have seminarians assist you who have a passion for vocations. Third, don’t get in a numbers game (to inflate the rolls) because one crazy, weird seminary candidate will chase away five normal guys.� Outgoing rector and president Sulpician Father James McKearney will continue to serve in ministry as a member of the Society of St. Sulpice, the archdiocese said in its announcement. Born April 30, 1960, in San Francisco, Bishop Daly graduated from Sacred Heart High School, earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of San Francisco in 1982; a Master of Divinity degree from St. Patrick’s in 1987; and a Master of Education degree from Boston College in 1996. He was ordained a priest for the San Francisco archdiocese in 1987.
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ARCHDIOCESE 7
CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | SEPTEMBER 20, 2013
St. Brigid School highlights archives in celebrating 125th year St. Brigid School, honored with a Sept. 30-Oct. 6 “St. Brigid School Week� proclamation by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, will celebrate its heritage on Oct. 5 with a special event at the school showcasing the archives of its 125 years of continuous operation. St. Brigid Parish was founded in 1863 and had been in existence for 22 years when the school was opened by four Sisters of Charity in 1888. During that time the Catholic population increased to the extent that Archbishop Patrick W. Riordan and pastor Father Peter Birmingham decided to equip the parish with a Catholic school. The archbishop had been familiar with the effective teaching of the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, whose motherhouse was located in Dubuque, Iowa. The Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary were founded by Father T.J. Donoghoe, and Mother Mary Francis Clarke was made its first superioress. The congregation of sisters traveled from Dublin, Ireland, to Philadelphia, devoting themselves to service of God in the education of children and to the victims of cholera. During their time in Philadelphia, the violent anti-Catholic agitation known as “KnowNothingism� broke out and was aggravated by the bitter tirades and bigoted incentive of non-Catholic ministers against the Catholic Church. The wave of bigotry reached its height in 1844, when an anti-Catholic mob marched through the streets of Philadelphia, pillaging the homes of prominent Catholics and burning two churches and a convent to the ground. The convent was the house of the Sisters of Charity of the BVM. After the incident, the sisters were invited by the bishop of Dubuque to come to his community. The sisters decided the West was to be their field of labor. It was to this community that Archbishop Riordan made application for nuns to conduct St. Brigid School. On Dec. 9, 1887, four sisters said farewell to their associates and set out for the new and far distant mission of California. The names of these pioneer sisters were Mary Maurice, superior; Sister Mary Arcadia; Sister Mary Magdalen; and Sister Mary Seratina. On Christmas Eve of 1887, the sisters took
The Sisters of Charity decided the West was to be their field of labor. up their residence on the top floor of the new school and on Jan. 9, 1888, they formally opened St. Brigid School. The new school house was described by one newspaper at the time to be one of the most attractive buildings in the northwestern part of the city. During the first few years of operation of the school, two of the sisters died from tuberculosis. A new school building was built in 1928, and in August of that year the first unit of the new grade school was erected. In 1936 the second unit followed, and in 1937 the original school building was razed. Despite losing its parish status in 1994, the school is still thriving, with five nuns educating 260 children.
(USED WITH PERMISSION OF MOUNT CARMEL ARCHIVES OF THE SISTERS OF CHARITY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY, DUBUQUE, IOWA)
St. Brigid’s Academy in San Francisco, circa 1913
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CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | SEPTEMBER 20, 2013
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St. Thomas More Parish’s labor of love: ‘Operation I Do’ Twenty-three couples were married Aug. 3 in a group wedding at St. Thomas More Church, San Francisco. It was the parish’s third annual “Operation I Do,” a communal celebration of the marriage sacrament.
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CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | SEPTEMBER 20, 2013
St. Thomas More Parish’s labor of love: ‘Operation I Do’ VALERIE SCHMALZ CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO
Cristino Lagahid was waiting in the car outside Serramonte Mall shortly before Mother’s Day while his wife and daughter were shopping when he remembered he wanted to buy his daughter some music, and popped into Joe Espinueva’s music store. There he saw a flyer for “Operation I Do” – a St. Thomas More Parish initiative offering sacramental marriage to civilly married couples or couples living together. It struck him – he’d heard about group weddings in his native Philippines but had never heard of them here in the United States. “Maybe this is the time,” he recalled thinking, “to marry my wife inside a church, to get a blessing from God. We’ve been married for 23 years, so I think it is the time.” Sitting with his wife Nancy beside him, her arm around the back of his chair, two weeks after the Aug. 3
(PHOTOS BY VALERIE SCHMALZ/CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO)
Twenty-three couples were married at St. Thomas More Church, San Francisco, on Aug. 3. From left, Franklin and Mary Joyce Calub; Rolando and Joann Belen; Ifeanyi and Obianuju Nzewi. wedding, Lagahid said: “I was thinking maybe this is a good surprise, something to offer my wife – a happy Mother’s Day, instead of giving something, this is spiritual – it’s not material.” Twenty-three couples were married Aug. 3 at St. Thomas More in the third annual “Operation I Do,” a big wedding with music, lots of fam-
ily, children, and flashing cameras. Parishioners pitched in, arranging flowers, playing music and singing, and preparing food for the party afterward as well as helping couples with paperwork, often with other countries and dioceses. The parish
also offers marriage preparation for the couples. The Lagahids’ experience warms the heart of Joe Espinueva, the St. Thomas More parishioner who SEE OPERATION I DO, PAGE 10
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10 WEDDING GUIDE
CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | SEPTEMBER 20, 2013
‘OPERATION I DO’: Community celebrates marriage sacrament FROM PAGE 9
spearheads “Operation I Do” with pastor Msgr. Labib Kobti. Espinueva was married civilly for 18 years before he and his wife were sacramentally married at St. Thomas More six years ago and it changed them both, he said. “We felt this longing, this feeling,” said Espinueva. “Being sacramentally married in the church is entirely different from being married civilly. We say we tasted a good food and we wanted to share it with others.” Espinueva and Msgr. Kobti were first inspired to start the group weddings in 2011, after reading in Catholic San Francisco about a 47 percent decline in sacramental marriage in the Archdiocese of San Francisco: 1,985 marriages in 1990 fell to 1,060 marriages in 2010. Over the same period the number of Catholics in the archdiocese grew from 395,000 to 444,000. The drop in sacramental marriages in the archdiocese mirrors national trends. About 72 percent of all U.S adults were married in 1960 but by 2008 the figure was down to 52 percent, according to a 2010 Pew Research Institute report, “The Decline of Marriage and Rise of New Families.” An archdiocesan marriage task force was formed to analyze the problem and its report is due soon. Couples do not marry in the church for many reasons, from problems with paperwork, to em-
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barrassment that they have been together for so long and are not married, to not having the means to throw the party they feel a marriage celebration deserves, Espinueva said. Being married in the Catholic Church changed their marriage, made it much better, said Steven and Medelyn Cornejo, smiling, their young daughter bouncing around and their son sitting quietly on the couch in the parish house at St. Thomas More after Sunday Mass. They were married at St. Thomas More in “Operation I Do” in 2012. “I not only owe it to myself but also for my daughter,” said Medelyn Cornejo, “that I could tell her in the eyes of God we are really husband and wife.” “Marriage is a lifetime commitment with God,” she said. For St. Thomas More parishioners, the success of “Operation I Do” – the first one drew 26 couples – shows there is a need for this marriage ministry. Msgr. Kobti preaches about “Operation I Do,” and the parish spreads the word that it is possible to get married in the church in a real wedding, without paying thousands of dollars. “We will not ask for money, we are not asking you for anything, we will be doing with you the paperwork and we will be giving you a party, free party,” Msgr. Kobti said. “It became something traditional here. Many of my parishioners are involved. It is now something that we do and will continue to do,” Msgr. Kobti said. “Already, we have people who have registered for next year.” See a video of the celebration at http://youtu.be/yKYiL9s53A.
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WEDDING GUIDE 11
CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | SEPTEMBER 20, 2013
Experts: Merciful church upholds marriage truth CAROL GLATZ CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
ROME – Recent remarks by Pope Francis about the need for a stronger pastoral approach to marriage and divorced couples, do not signal the church is overturning its laws or practice of denying communion to Catholics who divorce and remarry, said two canon law experts. Cardinal Burke When Pope Francis made parenthetical reference to the Orthodox churches permitting, in some cases, a second marriage, he was referring to an issue that has been under discussion for decades, said U.S. Cardinal Raymond L. Burke, prefect of the Supreme Court of the Apostolic Signature. The pope told reporters July 28 during his flight to Rome from Rio de Janeiro that “the Orthodox have a different practice.” They “follow the theology of ‘oikonomia’ (economy or stewardship), as they call it, and give a second possibility; they permit” a second marriage, the pope had said. Cardinal Burke, who spoke Sept. 16 at a renewal course on marriage law hosted by the Pontifical University of
the Holy Cross, told Catholic News Service that talking about the differences between the way the Orthodox churches and the Catholic Church handle the breakup of marriages “is a discussion that’s been going on for decades.” He said he took the pope’s remarks to journalists in July to mean that “the Holy Father is simply saying that this discussion should be taken seriously.” While it’s important “to understand very carefully the sense of the Oriental practice,” he said it’s just as crucial to understand and put into practice the Catholic Church’s “evangelical duty” to defend marriage as Jesus taught in the Gospel according to St. Matthew. The revised New American Bible, used at Mass by U.S. Catholics, translates the verse in Matthew 19:9 of Jesus upholding the indissolubility of marriage as: “Whoever divorces his wife (unless the marriage is unlawful) and marries another commits adultery.” However, most translations use “unfaithfulness,” “fornication” or something similar to “unchastity” for the exception. Unlike an annulment, which declares that a union was invalid from the beginning, the Orthodox decree does not question the initial validity of a sacramental marriage and unlike a civil divorce it does not dissolve a marriage. Rather, the Orthodox describe
it as a recognition that a marriage has ended because of the failure or sin of one or both spouses. Cardinal Burke told CNS that Catholics’ understanding of Orthodox practice “is fine, but we have to understand that marriage is by its very nature, permanent, faithful and a procreative union.” The Catholic Church teaches that while divorced Catholics can receive the sacraments, Catholics who have been divorced and remarried civilly cannot. Father Luis Navarro, dean of the pontifical university’s canon law faculty and priest of the prelature of Opus Dei, said in his opening talk that Pope Francis’ remarks recognize the difficulties remarried Catholics find themselves in. But, the priest said, tribunal courts, pastors and other members of the church “need to help them with the truth because the truth is more pastoral than anything else.”
POPE: MARRIAGE ROOTED IN CHRIST
VATICAN CITY – The Catholic Church closely safeguards the sanctity of marriage because it is a reflection of Christ’s union with his bride, the church, Pope Francis said. Jesus often uses the imagery of a bridegroom to help people see the nature of his relationship with the church, the pope said Sept. 6 during his morning Mass in his residence. “I think this is exactly the most profound reason why the church safeguards the sacrament of marriage so much and calls it the great sacrament, because it is precisely the image of the union of Christ with the church.” Another parallel between a nuptial banquet and the faith is that Christians are called to be joyful guests gathered together, the pope said. While there will be great trials and moments of pain in life, “a Christian is fundamentally joyful,” he said, because everyone is invited to a great celebration: “the nuptials of Jesus with the church.”
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CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | SEPTEMBER 20, 2013
Abuse fallout: Stockton diocese on brink of bankruptcy CAROL ZIMMERMANN CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
WASHINGTON – In his role with U.S. bishops’ committees over the years, Bishop Stephen E. Blaire of Stockton has frequently urged members of Congress not to cut programs that help the poor. Now, the bishop, who has led the Diocese of Stockton since 1999, is speaking closer to home about how his diocese – while facing financial burdens – must continue its ministries and its outreach to the local poor. Bishop Blaire, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, detailed the financial situation of the diocese in two recent letters to Catholics in the diocese that were read during weekend Masses at 35 parishes and 14 mission churches. The most recent letter, read during the Sept. 7-8 weekend Masses, announced the diocese’s plans to consider filing for bankruptcy. The diocese has been paying for multiple clergy sexual abuse lawsuit payments and is running out of funds for future settlements. By 2010, it had settled 22 sex abuse lawsuits at a cost of $18.7 million. Currently, the diocese is making payments on three sexual abuse lawsuits and has one suit pending. The decision facing Stockton comes
on the heels of an announcement made in a letter to Catholics in the Diocese Gallup, N.M., from Bishop James S. Wall during the weekend Masses of Aug. 31 and Sept. 1 stating that diocese’s plans to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. If the Stockton diocese goes through with declaring bankruptcy, it will be the 10th diocese to do so as a result of the Bishop Blaire costs of clergy sexual abuse lawsuits. In 2004, the Archdiocese of Portland, Ore., was the first to file for bankruptcy. “We continue to investigate our options, and no final decisions have been reached,” Bishop Blaire said in the letter, but he also stressed that “options other than filing for bankruptcy protection have not emerged.” “It appears likely to me that the diocese will need to reorganize financially under the protection of the bankruptcy court,” he added. The bishop wrote to diocesan Catholics in June informing them that the funds used to settle sexual abuse lawsuits have been almost depleted and that the diocese had “no apparent way to meet the expenses of pending lawsuits and possible future claims.” In that letter, he said that since his
arrival in the diocese 14 years ago he has tried to settle abuses cases when possible and to “heal the deep wounds caused to our church and our diocese by the evil of sexual abuse.” “Today, the cash reserves from which these payments are made are all but gone” he wrote, and the remaining cash “is a small fraction of what is needed to face pending lawsuits as well as any new claims.” He said decisions made by the diocese “will not impact the solvency or operations of the parishes,” and he stressed that the “hard work you have done to build and run your parish should not be jeopardized by the actions or inactions of the diocese in decades past.” In the September letter, he reiterated that diocesan parishes, Catholic high schools, Catholic cemeteries, a retreat center, Catholic Charities and entities organized as separate corporations would not be subject to the possible bankruptcy filing. The bishop said these separate organizations “need to have an understanding of the decision-making process and the possible claims that may be made by creditors of the diocese so they can be prepared in whatever way necessary.” He noted that the diocese not only serves 250,000 Catholics but also serves others within its six counties, including the poor and vulnerable.
Bishop: Any food aid cut has ‘moral consequences’ CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
WASHINGTON – How the U.S. House “chooses to address our nation’s hunger and nutrition programs will have profound human and moral consequences,” said the chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development. “This is a crucial time for our nation to place a circle of protection around programs that build a more just framework and put poor and hungry people first,” said Bishop Stephen E. Blaire of Stockton. “I respectfully urge you to reject efforts to reduce or restructure SNAP, and to pursue instead the common good in agriculture and food policy that works from a genuine preferential option for the poor.” The bishop’s comments about the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, formerly known as food stamps, came in a Sept. 11 letter to members of the House is response to
FORMER KANSAS CITY PASTOR SENTENCED TO 50 YEARS
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – A former Kansas City pastor was sentenced Sept. 12 to 50 years in federal prison on child pornography charges. In August 2012, Father Shawn Ratigan pleaded guilty to five counts of producing or attempting to produce child pornography. He received 10 years for each count and will serve his time in the Clay County Detention Center. After the priest entered his guilty plea last year, the diocese filed a petition with the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith that he be laicized. In a statement about the priest’s sentencing, Bishop Robert W. Finn of Kansas City-St. Joseph said: “To
a House proposal that would cut food assistance program by $40 billion over a period of 10 years. Such a move will “harm hungry children, poor families, vulnerable seniors and workers who are underemployed or unable to find employment,” the bishop said. According to federal statistics released in June, the latest figures available, close to 48 million people in U.S. households rely on the SNAP program. “SNAP is one of the most effective and important federal programs to combat hunger in the nation by helping to feed millions of persons in need every year,” he said. “SNAP helps relieve pressure on overwhelmed parishes, charities, food banks, pantries and other emergency food providers across the country that could not begin to meet the need for food assistance if SNAP eligibility or benefits were reduced.” Bishop Blaire acknowledged that faith groups and the private section “are vital
in the fight to combat hunger,” but at the same time, he said, “government has an indispensable role in safeguarding and promoting the common good of all. This includes ensuring poor and hungry people have access to adequate and nutritious food.” During the summer the House stripped funding for SNAP and other nutritional programs from the farm bill, with Republican leaders saying they would develop a separate bill later on nutrition. The stripped-down farm bill was approved by an eight-vote margin, 216-208, with votes cast largely along party lines. A final version of the bill has yet to be negotiated with the Senate, and a conference committee has not been appointed. The current farm bill expires Sept. 30. In his letter, Bishop Blaire said that struggling Americans “are not seeking a life of government dependency but rightfully deserve decent paying jobs to provide for them and their families.”
victims of abuse, their families and the community at large, I renew my heartfelt apology and firm pledge to make our Catholic institutions second to none in the protection of children and the vulnerable. “Much has already been done to strengthen a culture of protection in the local church since the arrest” of Father Ratigan in May 2011, the bishop said in the Sept. 12 statement. He outlined several steps the diocese has taken to address clergy sexual abuse, among them his appointment of former Jackson County Assistant Prosecutor Jenifer Valenti “to independently receive and investigate any and all suspicion of abuse, grooming behavior and boundary violations in our Catholic institutions.”
RETIRED ARCHBISHOP CRITICAL BUT STABLE
SEATTLE – Retired Seattle Archbishop Alex J. Brunett remained in critical but stable condition in an intensive care unit at Overlake Hospital in Bellevue Sept. 16, four days after suffering a stroke and undergoing surgery. Archdiocesan spokesman Greg Magnoni said that following his stroke, surgeons successfully operated on the archbishop to remove a blood clot and stop some bleeding on the brain. Following surgery, he was able to respond to voice commands, Magnoni said. In September 2012, Pope Benedict XVI named the retired prelate to be apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Oakland. He served in that role from October 2012 until May of this year.
(CNS PHOTO /BOB ROLLER)
A woman prays during a Mass for consolation and healing at St. Matthew’s Cathedral, Washington, D.C., Sept. 17.
Build ‘civilization of love,’ cardinal urges post-shooting CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
WASHINGTON – One day after the tragic shooting at the Washington Navy Yard, Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl celebrated a Mass for consolation and healing in which he prayed for the victims of the rampage and asked God to “heal the wounds in our society so that we can prevent tragedies such as we have just witnessed.” “We commend to the hands of our merciful and loving God, who alone can judge human hearts, the souls of all who died yesterday,” Cardinal Wuerl said Sept. 17. “We pray for not only the healing of those who are recovering from this violent attack but also for a greater healing, a healing that touches what is wounded and broken in our world.” The Washington cardinal was the main celebrant of the Mass at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle. Several priests concelebrated the midday liturgy, which was attended by about 250 people. The Mass was offered, Cardinal Wuerl said, because “we know our prayer will be joined to the great prayer that Jesus offers with us and for us.” On Sept. 16, just as the workday began, a gunman went on a shooting rampage at the Washington Navy Yard, killing 12 and injuring at least 14 others. The FBI later identified the shooter as Aaron Alexis, a 34-year-old former naval petty officer who was a military contract worker. Alexis was killed after a shootout with law enforcement officers. In his homily at the Cathedral of St. Matthew, Cardinal Wuerl called on the faithful to recognize that “something is wrong, that sin still persists in our world.” “Our prayer for healing is offered as well for whatever it is that fostered such a culture of violence, a culture of death,” he said. He said that the faithful should act as peacemakers and create “a civilization of love.” He said that “we are capable as a people, as a nation, as individuals, to build a civilization of love.”
WORLD 13
CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | SEPTEMBER 20, 2013
Pope urges ‘sincere, rigorous dialogue’ with nonbelievers FRANCIS X. ROCCA CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
VATICAN CITY – Writing in one of Italy’s major secular newspapers, Pope Francis called for a “sincere and rigorous dialogue” between the church and nonbelievers as an “intimate and indispensable expression” of Christian love. The pope’s words appeared in a 2,600word letter published in the Sept. 11 edition of the Rome daily La Repubblica, in reply to recent articles by Eugenio Scalfari, a co-founder and former editor-in-chief of the newspaper. An “open and unprejudiced dialogue” between Christians and those of no religious faith is “rightful and precious” today for at least two reasons, Pope Francis wrote. Such a dialogue could “open doors for a serious and fertile encounter” between secular culture and Christian culture, which have lost the ability to communicate due largely to modern views of faith as the “darkness of superstition opposed to the light of reason.” In fact, the pope wrote, the impulse toward communication springs out of the very nature of Christian faith. “Since it is born of love,” he wrote, quoting his own encyclical “Lumen Fidei,” “faith is not intransigent, but grows in respectful coexistence with others. ... Far from making us inflexible, the security of faith sets us on a journey; it enables witness and dialogue with all.” This loving quality of faith offers a path of dialogue with skeptics, despite modern ideas of truth as “relative and subjective.” “I would not speak, not even for a believer, of ‘absolute’ truth, in the sense of absolute as disconnected, lacking any relationship,” the pope wrote. “Truth, according to Christian faith, is the love of God for us in Jesus Christ. Therefore truth is a relationship. “This does not mean that truth is variable and subjective – on the contrary,” he wrote. “But it means that truth is given to us always and only as a path and a life. ... In other words, truth being after all one in the same as love, it requires humility and openness in order to be sought, welcomed and expressed.” Asked whether the church condemns those who lack and do not seek religious faith, the pope replied that the “mercy of God is unlimited if directed to someone with a sincere and contrite heart.” “The question for someone who does not believe in God lies in obeying one’s own conscience,” he wrote. “Sin exists, even for one who does not have faith, when one goes against conscience. To listen to and obey it means, in fact, to choose between what one perceives as good or as bad. And on this choice is staked the good or evil of our action.” In his letter, Pope Francis also distinguished the proper roles of the “religious sphere and the political sphere” of society. The church is “called to sow the leaven and salt of the Gospel, that is the love and mercy of God that reach all men,” he wrote, whereas to “civil and political society falls the arduous task of articulating and incarnating – in justice and solidarity, in law and peace – an ever more humane way of life.”
(CNS PHOTO/L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO VIA CATHOLIC PRESS PHOTO)
Pope Francis accepts a gift of a 1984 Renault at the Vatican Sept. 7. The silver-white four-door vehicle with 186,000 miles was donated by Father Renzo Zocca of Verona, Italy. The priest and the pontiff took the vehicle for a quick drive around the Vatican.
Pope takes classic Renault for spin CAROL GLATZ CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
VATICAN CITY — When an Italian priest handed Pope Francis the keys to his classic 30hp Renault 4, the pope got behind the wheel and took off, leaving security squirming behind, knowing full well this would be just the beginning of a pope truly on the move. Even though he shouldn’t be able to reach Ferrari-like speeds with a 300cc engine, it might be tough keeping up when he hits the hills. “The security personnel next to me were very concerned because they understood that from now on he would be tooling around the Vatican in my car,” the car donor, 69-year-old Father Renzo Zocca, told the Italian Catholic magazine, Famiglia Cristiana. But the priest told the police, not to worry, “I left some snow chains in the trunk. You never know!” The new addition to the papal fleet — a silver-white four-door 1984 Renault with 186,000 miles on the odometer — happened on Saturday, just a few hours before the Sept. 7 prayer vigil in St. Peter’s Square for peace. In his July visit to Rio de Janeiro, Pope Francis rode in a simple silver Fiat as seen in this photo. Now, the papal vehicle fleet includes a 1984 Renault — a gift from an Italian priest. The pope didn’t get his new wheels on eBay. Father Zocca said he wrote the pope, saying he wanted to meet him, donate his car, and tell him about his ministry: living and working for 25 years in a run-down, working-class neighborhood in Verona — the northern Italian city made famous by Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
Instead of feuding family rivalries, however, Father Zocca had to face off violent drug pushers who were destroying young people’s lives and leaving the priest death threats. Not even getting stabbed would stop the priest, who said, “I wanted to embody the (Second Vatican) Council in that parish in the outskirts, which has been the center of my life.” With both parents dead at 35 years old, Father Zocca raised his 14-yearold brother. He revitalized the community and built centers for the poor, disabled and the elderly. He and his brother lived in government housing, and with an apartment on the ninth floor, “I would joke that I lived in the highest rectory in Italy.” Then on Aug. 10 at 10:19 a.m., Father Zocca got a call on his cell from the pope. Pope Francis had gotten the priest’s letter and they spent half an hour talking about the priest’s work “in the peripheries,” as the pope has repeatedly called today’s priests to go. Father Zocca reiterated his offer that he had this white Renault in the garage that had been his faithful companion for decades as he drove all over Verona and Italy for his ministry. The pope was unsure, the priest said, and suggested the priest give it to the poor. “I answered that this car had already given much to the poor and now it had to go to the pope.” He told the magazine that he wanted to give the pope something that was a testimony to his experience and ministry of going into the outskirts “and what a better gift than my Renault 4?” he said. When the pope was sure Father Zocca had another car to use, the pope pulled out his appointment book, leafed through the pages and started
listing the days and times he would be free in early September. With the appointment set for Sept. 7 at 3 p.m, Father Zocca had his mechanic, Stefano, give the car a tune-up, clean the spark plugs and put air in the tires. The car also runs on methane so “the Vatican won’t have to worry about high gas prices,” the priest said. On Saturday, the car was loaded on a tow truck with the priest and about 100 townsfolk, including the mechanic, following along on a chartered bus to Rome. They brought the car to the front of the pope’s residence at Domus Sanctae Marthae where the pope greeted the priest and gave him a big hug. Father Zocca told the pope that he felt bad half of their group was stuck outside the gates because of security concerns, so the pope told him, “Let’s go!” They hopped in the car with the priest behind the wheel and the pope in the passenger side while the mechanic and the priest’s assistant got in the back. The mechanic warned Father Zocca to “Go slow! We’re in the Vatican” even though they were only going 18 mph. The pope met the rest of the group and then they headed back inside the Vatican with the car. The pope said he had had a Renault 4 back in the day and that “it had never let him down.” Before saying goodbye, the pope told Father Zocca, “‘Write me again.’ Then I gave him the keys and he got behind the wheel,” the priest said. “I watched him drive off in that car as if it were the most normal thing in the world,” he said.
Argentina’s ‘cowboy priest’ beatified
POPE: JUDGING OTHERS KILLS, REFLECTS COWARDICE
Members of the clergy stand below a large portrait during the beatification ceremony Sept. 14 for Father Jose Gabriel del Rosario Brochero in the village of Cura Brochero, Argentina, which was named after him. Father Brochero, who was known as the “cowboy priest,” lived from 1840 to 1914, and became the eighth Argentine to be beatified by the Catholic Church. He was well known for his aid to the sick and dying, particularly in the cholera epidemic of 1867 that devastated the city of Cordoba.
(CNS PHOTO/ GABRIELA LEZCANO, REUTERS)
This article was published on the Catholic News Service blog, cnsblog. wordpress.com.
VATICAN CITY – People who judge and criticize others are hypocrites and cowards who are unable to face their own defects, Pope Francis said. Gossip, too, is “criminal” as it destroys, rather than exalts the image of God present in others, he said in his early morning homily Sept. 13 at his residence of Domus Sanctae Marthae. “Those who live judging their neighbors, speaking badly of them, are hypocrites because they don’t have the strength, the courage to look at their own defects,” he said. “Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own,” he said, referring to the day’s Gospel reading according to St. Luke. Every time “we judge our brothers and sisters in our heart, and worse, when we talk about it with others, we are killer Christians,” imitating Cain who committed “the first homicide in history.”
14 OPINION
CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | SEPTEMBER 20, 2013
Moral calculus of a military strike on Syria
P
resident Obama, envisioning the possibility of a “limited cruise missile strike against Syrian military targets” (as well as arming moderate rebels), outlines these goals: deter Syria’s army from using chemical weapons again, degrading the ability of the Syrian army to use chemical munitions and the bombing of civilian areas, reinforce the global norm against the use of chemical weapons, and pressure the Assad regime to work out a peace agreement. The targets for such a strike include military units that FATHER GERALD have stored and prepared D. COLEMAN, SS chemical weapons and carried out the civilian attack, the headquarters overseeing this effort, rockets, artillery and long-range missiles that can deliver these weapons, and air defenses. There are no plans to strike chemical stockpiles themselves as this would risk a potential catastrophe. This military strike (called the “use-of-forceresolution”) would deploy cruise missiles, launched from destroyers in the eastern Mediterranean, and perhaps the use of Air Force bombers. A civil war has been raging in Syria since March 2011 as rebels have tried to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Evidence released by the United Nations has confirmed at least eight massacres perpetrated by the Assad regime and one by rebels over the last year and a half. The U.N. commission that studied the use of chemical weapons calls Syria a “battlefield where armed forces are getting away with large-scale murder.”
2 million refugees
Relentless shelling has killed thousands of civilians and displaced the populations of entire towns. The U.N. Human Rights Council declares that both sides have committed heinous war crimes and have killed over 100,000 people. According to U.N. statistics, another 5,000 are being slaughtered monthly, with this rate of killing accelerating. Last year, there were 230,000 Syrian refugees. This year, there are 2 million refugees. As the slaughter in Syria reaches perhaps the hundreds of thousands, it now stands as the world capital of human suffering.
On Aug. 21, in violation of international treaties, sarin gas was released on suburban Damascus killing 1,400 men, women and children. Sarin is a colorless, odorless liquid used as a chemical weapon owing to its extreme potency as a nerve agent. It has been classified as a “weapon of mass destruction” in U.N. Resolution 687. Production and stockpiling of sarin was outlawed by the Chemical and Weapons Convention of 1993. Even at very low concentrations, sarin can be fatal within one minute after direct ingestion due to suffocation from lung muscle paralysis. On Aug. 25, U.N. weapons inspectors visited the site of the attack and verified its use on civilian populations.
‘Moral obscenity’
Pope Francis has vehemently spoken out about the “massacre” and “moral obscenity” in Syria. On Sept. 3, he sent a message directly to Assad: “With utmost firmness I condemn the use of chemical weapons.” On Sept. 4 – before the G-20 meeting – he sent a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin saying that a military solution in Syria would be “futile.” It is disgraceful that the entire group of world leaders could not even agree to a joint condemnation of Assad’s use of chemical weapons. In speaking to Jordanian King Abdullah II, the pope noted that “dialogue and negotiations are the only option for putting an end to the conflict and violence.” On Sept. 7, Pope Francis led a five-hour vigil for peace for 100,000 people gathered in St. Peter’s Square. He said that violence and war are the language of death and violence can never be answered with violence. In Catholic social teaching, a war or military strike is legitimate only if it meets four criteria: Just cause: The U.N. Doctrine of the Responsibility to Protect demands that all nations bear the responsibility to protect innocent human lives. While Syria is not directly attacking the United States, it is responsible for the direct killing of innocent people. Last resort: A military strike and war should come only after all diplomatic channels have been exhausted. In the present case, a negotiated settlement with United Nations backing has not been achieved. Even though the prospects of diplomatic progress appear slim, a coordinated international intervention against Syria remains lacking. Possibility of success: No one can possibly foretell the results of a military strike on Syria. Legitimate authority: The U.N. Security Council is
the appropriate body to authorize a military strike on Syria. A military strike against Syria does not meet the last three criteria and should not be employed without more extensive diplomatic negotiations. Russia, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, British Prime Minister David Cameron and some members of Congress have been pushing the Assad regime to place its chemical weapons under international control. Syria’s foreign minister said the country welcomes this proposal. President Obama’s speech to the nation on Sept. 10 indicated his cautious response to this possibility. To bring Syria’s chemical stockpiles under international control faces immense challenges, with no guarantee that Assad will hand over his entire arsenal to inspectors. Assad possess sarin and is believed to posses its more deadly form VX, the nerve agent tabun, as well as blistering agents such as mustard phosgene and hydrogen cyanide. These weapons are stored in five major locations and have been moved around the country frequently. U.N. inspection teams will face extreme dangers as the country continues its civil war.
Intrinsic evil
What moral exigencies are evident? The Assad regime has used weapons of mass destruction against innocent men, women and children and this violates a universal norm at the heart of our global order. This demands a strong response from the international community. Assad has committed genocide, condemned by Vatican Council II as an intrinsic evil. The international community cannot ignore the ongoing threat from the Assad regime’s stockpiles of chemical weapons, whether they are used again against Syrian civilians or transferred to Hezbollah or stolen by other terrorists. How successful will U.N. inspectors be in burning, degrading, burying the chemicals in Syria, or moving them out of Syria to dismantle them? The challenge is overwhelming and fraught with danger and deception. The broader conflict in Syria is a threat to regional stability and the security of U.S. allies and partners, as well as a humanitarian catastrophe for the Syrian people and those neighboring countries attempting to absorb over two million refugees. SULPICIAN FATHER COLEMAN is vice president, corporate ethics for the Daughters of Charity Health System.
LETTERS Teaching not in conflict with compassion Sometimes an article in Catholic San Francisco offers a perspective on homosexuality that shrouds the Catholic faith on that topic. In the Aug. 23 edition there is such an article: “Church teaching on gays and celibacy,” by Father Kenneth Doyle. The shrouding of faith arises because Father Doyle uses a quote about homosexuality that the church actually relinquished in the final version of its catechism. Father Doyle writes that the church holds (that) individuals “do not choose their homosexual condition.” True, this statement showed up in the first draft of the catechism. But it was dropped in the final version of the catechism, perhaps because the implications of the statement impugn the creator of the natural order. After all, to allege that humans do not choose their homosexual condition is to imply that individuals receive this condition according to the natural order. But does the natural order of creation orient some individuals toward a materially sinful behavior (i.e., homosexual activity)? In a word, no. Better to understand –as the catechism actually teaches – (that) the homosexual inclination is itself ”objectively disordered.” Catholics can hold to the actual teaching of the catechism about the disordered nature of the homosexual inclination without failing to be compassionate and merciful toward individuals who experience this inclination. Our compassion would have us understand that these individuals are undergoing a trial. Our mercy would have us forgive the (unintentionally) erroneous judgment that is contained in the perception of some individuals that they are not the causal agents of their homosexual inclination. For their part, if these individuals wish to live in the light of Christ, it is better – because more truthful –
for them to refrain from saying they did not choose their homosexual inclination, better – because more truthful – for them to affirm that they do not know the precise origin of the homosexual inclination within themselves. To affirm as much is to manifest a sense of self that is at once humble and capable of being led into the light of Christ. John Collins San Rafael
Protest images underplayed? I would like to comment on my disappointment on the cover of the Sept. 13 issue to see the picture of a boy suffering in Congo instead of the picture on Page 22 of the pastor of All Souls Church, Father Agnel, and the three other protesters. It would seem so much more appropriate to have the pictures of the protesters (on the cover). Valerie Schmalz wrote a nice article covering Respect Life SSF and the many Catholics in opposition to a Planned Parenthood clinic in South San Francisco at the Aug. 28 hearing, and we thank her for that. I would like to add that Mater Dolorosa Parish and Father Joe Richard and Father John Jimenez, with his drop-in visits, were there constantly during these past four months during our faithful Saturday demonstrations and rosary prayer vigils. Our fight for the protection of life will continue, and these
neighboring parishes are going to be right there with us with God’s grace. Rosa Gomez Respect Life SSF
God is nonpartisan Re Sue Hayes’ (“Slaves to our sorrows,” letter, Sept. 13) fervent defense of the Affordable Care Act and demonization of (she didn’t name the party) its opponents: God is neither Democrat nor Republican. The ACA has been criticized for many reasons, economic and moral, including running roughshod over Catholic hospitals’ long-operative conscience clause restrictions. But then, may I presume she wholeheartedly supports Catholic Democrats’ efforts to remake medical care without such restrictions? After all, our president insinuated at Notre Dame mere months into his first term that he might just teach us Catholics a thing or two about our faith. Is this what Ms. Hayes might be referring to? Sorry, neither the political left nor the right have preemptive claims on moral superiority. I’m sympathetic to her call of solidarity with the poor. But the ACA, as policy, still has grave flaws and shouting at me doesn’t fix it. But wait, Rep. Pelosi said everything will be fine. We had to pass it to find out what’s actually in it. J.R. Hermann San Mateo
LETTERS POLICY EMAIL letters.csf@sfarchdiocese.org WRITE Letters to the Editor, Catholic San Francisco, One Peter Yorke Way, San Francisco, CA 94109
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OPINION 15
CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | SEPTEMBER 20, 2013
Eichmann, Arendt and the ‘banality of evil’
T
he appearance of an art-house film on the philosopher Hannah Arendt has sparked renewed interest in an old controversy. In 1961, Arendt went to Jerusalem as a correspondent for the New Yorker magazine to cover the trial of Adolf Eichmann, the notorious Nazi colonel accused of masterminding the transportation of millions of Jews to the death camps. Arendt was herself a Jew who had managed to escape from Nazi Germany and who had been, years before, something of an ardent Zionist. But she had since grown suspicious FATHER ROBERT of the Israeli state, seeing BARRON it as un-self-critical and indifferent to the legitimate concerns of the Palestinians. I think it is fair to say, therefore, that she came to the trial with a complicated set of assumptions and a good deal of conflicting feelings. As the trial unfolded, Arendt was massively put off by what she saw as the grandstanding of the prosecutors. Their irresponsible, even clownish, antics were, she concluded, the public face of the Israeli state, which had determined to make of the Eichmann proceedings a show trial. But what struck her most of all was Eichmann himself. Sequestered in a glass box for his own protection, squinting behind owlish spectacles, screwing up his mouth in an odd, nervous tic, trading in homespun expressions, pleading that he was just a middlelevel bureaucrat following orders, Eichmann was neither impressive nor frightening nor sinister. Arendt never doubted that Eichmann was guilty of great wickedness, but she saw the Nazi functionary as the very incarnation of what she famously called “the banality of evil.” One of the distinctive marks of this banality Arendt characterized as Gedankenlosigkeit, which could be superficially
W
Evil is mere shadow, never substance. And this is why, when it shows up in raw form, it looks, not like Goethe’s Mephistopheles or Milton’s Satan but rather like a little twerp in a glass box. rendered in English as “thoughtlessness” but which carries more accurately the sense of “the inability to think.” Eichmann couldn’t rise above his own petty concerns about his career and he couldn’t begin to “think” along with another, to see what he was doing from the standpoint of his victims. This very Gedankenlosigkeit is what enabled him to say, probably with honesty, that he didn’t feel as though he had committed any crimes. The film to which I referred at the outset very effectively portrays the firestorm of protest that followed Arendt’s account of the Eichmann trial. Many Jews, both in Israel and America, thought by characterizing Eichmann the way she did, she had exonerated him and effectively blamed his victims. I won’t descend into the complexity of that argument, which rages to some degree to the present day. But I will say that I believe Arendt’s critics missed the rather profound metaphysical significance of what the philosopher was saying about the Nazi bureaucrat. In a text written during the heat of bitter controversy surrounding her book, Arendt tried to explain in greater detail what she meant by calling evil banal: “Good can be radical; evil can never be radical, it can only be extreme, for it possesses neither depth nor any demonic dimension, yet – and this is its horror! – it can spread like a fungus over the surface of the earth and lay waste the entire world.” The young Hannah Arendt had written her doctoral dissertation under the great German philosopher Karl Jaspers, and the topic of her work was the con-
cept of love in the writings of St. Augustine. One of the most significant intellectual breakthroughs of Augustine’s life was the insight that evil is not something substantial, but rather a type of non-being, a lack of some perfection that ought to be present. Thus, a cancer is evil in the measure that it compromises the proper functioning of a bodily organ, and a sin is evil in the measure that it represents a distortion or twisting of a rightly functioning will. Accordingly, evil does not stand over and against the good as a kind of co-equal metaphysical force, as the Manichees would have it. Rather, it is invariably parasitic upon the good, existing only as a sort of shadow. J.R.R. Tolkien gave visual expression to this Augustinian notion in his portrayal of the Nazgul in “The Lord of the Rings.” Those terrible and terrifying threats, flying through the air on fearsome beasts, are revealed, once their capes and hoods are pulled away, to be precisely nothing, emptiness. And this is exactly why, to return to Arendt’s description, evil can never be radical. It can never sink down into the roots of being; it can never stand on its own; it has no integrity, no real depth or substance. To be sure, it can be extreme and it can, as Arendt’s image suggests, spread far and wide, doing enormous damage. But it can never truly be. Occasionally, in the course of the liturgical year, Catholics are asked to renew their baptismal promises. One of the questions, to which the answer “I do” is expected, is this: “Do you reject the glamor of evil and refuse to be mastered by sin?” Evil can never truly be beautiful, for beauty is a property of being; it can only be “glamorous” or superficially attractive. The great moral lesson – articulated by both Augustine and Hannah Arendt – is that we must refuse to be beguiled by the glittering banality of wickedness and we must consistently choose the substance over the shadow. FATHER BARRON is the founder of the global ministry Word on Fire and the rector/president of Mundelein Seminary, Mundelein, Ill.
The fruit of the bomb
e recently passed the 68th anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. I’m hoping our national hindsight becomes 20/20 before we reach the 70th anniversary. A first principle of Catholic moral theology is that the end of an action (that is, the hoped for outcome or a person’s intention) does not justify the means (that is, what you have to do to arrive at your end). Some acts, because they are inherently evil, can never be justified, even by the best of intentions. When CHRISTOPHER we undo this principle we unleash a culture of death. STEFANICK If the end does justify the means then we can do literally anything so long as our intentions are good enough. This was certainly the thinking of our nation in our treatment of Japan in World War II. Our intentions, we are told, were so good that they somehow sanctified the leveling of two cities. Don’t get me wrong. I’m proud of our military and I love our country, but not more than God. The church’s teaching is consistent and clear that “Every act of war directed to the indiscriminate destruction of whole cities or vast areas with their inhabitants is a crime against God and man, which merits firm and unequivocal condemnation” (“Gaudium et Spes,” 80). But growing up, “the end justifies the means” was engrained in my psyche by public school and even by faithful Catholics as I was told how to think and feel about the “necessary” bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. I was taught that we had to drop the bomb because all other options were explored, exhausted, and it was the only way to end the war with Japan. I was taught that the Japanese people were so brainwashed by their allegiance to the emperor that every single citizen was a part of the war ma-
chine and a legitimate enemy combatant. Most of all I was taught that, had we not dropped the bomb, countless U.S. soldiers would have given their lives fighting the Japanese. There are many problems with the above justifications, and the first is that they aren’t entirely true (though they are still oft-repeated). Before we dropped the bomb, Japan was broken, on the verge of total collapse both militarily and economically, and becoming ever more open to the necessity of surrender. And the real scandal is that our government knew all that.
Indiscriminate bombing
U.S. bombers had full reign of the air over Japan and bombed indiscriminately. On the night of March 9-10, 1945, we dropped 1,700 tons of bombs on 16 square miles of the most heavily populated areas of Tokyo, killing more than 100,000 people. Many Japanese were homeless and starving to death – hardly capable combatants. The Japanese Imperial Army and Navy were limping, at best. As Gen. Curtis LeMay rightly noted months before we dropped the bomb, we were “driving them back to the stone age.” And it’s now public record that countless memos (available on www.cia.gov) made it to the U.S. president’s desk outlining how, at the highest levels in Japanese government, there was talk of surrender and a steady weakening of the war machine’s resolve. So much for the idea that negotiation was impossible. We had convinced ourselves that every human being in Japan was part of the war machine: men, women, elderly, children, toddlers, the rich, the rice farmer on the brink of starvation, our fellow Catholics (Nagasaki’s Urakami district which was the epicenter of the blast was also an epicenter of Catholic culture in Japan for 400 years) – all of them. Hundreds of thousands of people died from the blasts. Those who weren’t lucky enough to be vaporized died from burning, or after days or hours (depending on how close they were to the blast) of excruciating pain from a lethal dose of radiation. Cancer took countless lives in the years following. I look at my 18-month-old and wonder how many tod-
dlers were among our “enemy combatants.” Had we lined them up and marched them off into incinerators that would’ve been universally condemned, but when we melt people alive from 30,000 feet it doesn’t feel quite as evil to us. First-world barbarism is always “cleaner” and more sophisticated.
End doesn’t justify means
It’s true that U.S. soldiers would have died had we not dropped the bomb. Though given Japan’s weakened state, victory might have been far easier than is commonly projected. But regardless, the end doesn’t justify the means. It is far better to let U.S. soldiers risk their lives fighting a war using legitimate means than to spare them by leveling a city packed with civilians. If we can’t say that without hesitation, we should stop seeing ourselves as “the good guys.” Any decent solider would agree that it’s better for him to put his life on the line than to protect it by vaporizing a child. It has been said that, “The fruit of abortion is nuclear war.” The logic is that abortion creates a society where human life isn’t valued above all else, where the end justifies the means, and where moral absolutes can be obliterated by good intentions. All of that was engrained in our nation’s psyche 30 years before Roe v. Wade. I think it would be more accurate to say, “The fruit of nuclear war was abortion.” What we did to Japan was an act of terrorism in the strictest sense, though with the best of intentions. We dropped the bomb to save our troops, end a horrible war, and deter all future international conflicts by revealing our terrible strength to the world, thereby making any potential enemy terrified of us. And now we live under the terror of our enemies – from rogue nations to terrorist cells – using our weapons against us to bomb a major U.S. city someday. We’d regard that as the greatest terrorist act imaginable, an egregious crime against humanity that no intention could ever justify, and it would be, just as it was in 1945. STEFANICK’S column is distributed by the Denver Catholic Register, official newspaper of the Denver archdiocese. His website is www.RealLifeCatholic.com.
16 FAITH
CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | SEPTEMBER 20, 2013
SUNDAY READINGS
Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time ‘No servant can serve two masters. … You cannot serve both God and mammon.’ LUKE 16:1-13 AMOS 8:4-7 Hear this, you who trample upon the needy and destroy the poor of the land! “When will the new moon be over,” you ask, “that we may sell our grain, and the Sabbath, that we may display the wheat? We will diminish the ephah, add to the shekel, and fix our scales for cheating! We will buy the lowly for silver, and the poor for a pair of sandals; even the refuse of the wheat we will sell!” The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob: Never will I forget a thing they have done! PSALM 113:1-2, 4-6, 7-8 Praise the Lord who lifts up the poor. Praise, you servants of the Lord, praise the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name of the Lord both now and forever. Praise the Lord who lifts up the poor. High above all nations is the Lord; above the heavens is his glory. Who is like the Lord, our God, who is enthroned on high and looks upon the heavens and the earth below? Praise the Lord who lifts up the poor. He raises up the lowly from the dust; from the dunghill he lifts up the poor to seat them with princes, with the princes of his own people. Praise the Lord who lifts up the poor.
1 TIMOTHY 2:1-8 Beloved: First of all, I ask that supplications, prayers, petitions, and thanksgivings be offered for everyone, for kings and for all in authority, that we may lead a quiet and tranquil life in all devotion and dignity. This is good and pleasing to God our savior, who wills everyone to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth. For there is one God. There is also one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as ransom for all. This was the testimony at the proper time. For this I was appointed preacher and apostle – I am speaking the truth, I am not lying – teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. It is my wish, then, that in every place the men should pray, lifting up holy hands, without anger or argument. LUKE16:1-13 Jesus said to his disciples, “A rich man had a steward who was reported to him for squandering his property. He summoned him and said, ‘What is this I hear about you? Prepare a full account of your stewardship, because you can no longer be my steward.’ The steward said to himself, ‘What shall I do, now that my master is taking the position of steward away from me? I am not strong enough to dig and I am ashamed to beg. I know what I shall do
so that, when I am removed from the stewardship, they may welcome me into their homes.’ He called in his master’s debtors one by one. To the first he said, ‘How much do you owe my master?’He replied, ‘One hundred measures of olive oil.’ He said to him, ‘Here is your promissory note. Sit down and quickly write one for fifty.’ Then to another the steward said, ‘And you, how much do you owe?’He replied, ‘One hundred kors of wheat.’ The steward said to him, ‘Here is your promissory note; write one for eighty.’ And the master commended that dishonest steward for acting prudently. “For the children of this world are more prudent in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. I tell you, make friends for yourselves with dishonest wealth, so that when it fails, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. The person who is trustworthy in very small matters is also trustworthy in great ones; and the person who is dishonest in very small matters is also dishonest in great ones. If, therefore, you are not trustworthy with dishonest wealth, who will trust you with true wealth? If you are not trustworthy with what belongs to another, who will give you what is yours? No servant can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and mammon.”
The path of unconditional love
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he other day, I read a story of conversion that touched me deeply. A good and kind atheist was working in an African refugee camp, filled with people displaced by a local civil war. It was a desperate place where hope had long ago disappeared. One day, a food shipment arrived to feed the starving people who lived in the camp, but it was not nearly enough. As the food dwindled, the man found he had just one banana left. He gave it to a young girl who had finally reached the front of the line. She walked a few steps with the banana, then broke it in two. She gave one half to her younger brother, the other half to her little DEACON MICHAEL sister. Sighing, the girl then sat down and licked the MURPHY banana peel, getting from it whatever nourishment might lie there. At that moment, in the midst of all that sadness and sorrow, the man who had given her the banana became a believer.
SCRIPTURE REFLECTION
I often struggle when trying to convince my middle school students of God’s existence. One of the reasons they have difficulty believing is because of the terrible way we often treat each other, wondering how a good God could possibly allow such evil to exist. While I’ll leave answering that question to the Holy Father and the great philosophers of the world, I think a person only need look to the Gospel this week to see why we’re often so horribly cruel to one another: We’re choosing to serve mammon rather than God. It’s easy to understand my students’ skepticism, or the initial disbelief of the atheist in my earlier story, when, due to our own selfishness, self-absorption and greed, God so often appears to be absent and the world seems a harsh and lonely place. Yet I think the young girl in the camp offers such strong, overwhelming evidence of God’s existence that even a very cynical eighth grader might come to believe. In sharing the banana with her siblings, the girl demonstrated the innate, God-given goodness and strength found in all of us, and in choosing to serve God, rather than her own needs (no matter how valid those needs might have been), she changed the world, starting with her little brother, her little sister, and that former atheist. At such a moment, how
could anyone doubt, how could God’s kingdom not grow by leaps and bounds? During this week of the 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time, the Lord is asking all of us to choose to serve him and the father, to demonstrate the same courage and generosity as that little girl. It’s not easy. We’re pulled in so many different directions, worried about money and prestige and our place in the “world.” We get so overwhelmed, so exhausted, so confused, we begin to forget what peace and joy really feel like. Jesus reminds us that it’s in choosing to love and serve him, which in practice means choosing to love and serve each other, that true happiness and purpose in life can really be found. It’s been my experience that when the chips are down, people are extraordinarily kind, compassionate and generous. In the day-to-day world, we just sometimes forget who we are. In that refugee camp, the girl reminded our new believer. In the Gospel this week, Jesus reminds us as well, asking us once again to choose his path of unconditional love, where we give ourselves freely to the world and all of our brothers and sisters. That brave young girl did it, and she had nothing. Can we do any less? DEACON MURPHY serves at St. Charles Parish, San Carlos, and teaches religion at Sacred Heart Schools, Atherton.
LITURGICAL CALENDAR, DAILY MASS READINGS MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 23: Memorial of St. Pius of Pietrelcina, priest. Ezr 1:1-6. PS 126:1b-2ab, 2cd-3, 4-5, 6. Lk 8:16-18.
Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time. Optional Memorial of Sts. Cosmas and Damian, martyrs. Hg 1:1-8. PS 149:1b-2, 3-4, 5-6a and 9b. Lk 9:7-9.
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24: Tuesday of the Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time. Ezr 6:7-8, 12b, 14-20. PS 122:1-2, 3-4ab, 4cd-5. Lk 8:19-21.
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 27: Memorial of St. Vincent de Paul, priest. Hg 2:1-9. PS 43:1, 2, 3, 4. Lk 9:1822.
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25: Wednesday of the Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time. Ezr 9:5-9. Tb 13:2, 3-4a, 4befghn, 7-8. Lk 9:1-6.
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 28: Saturday of the Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time. Optional Memorial of St. Wenceslaus, martyr; St. Lawrence Ruiz and Companions, martyrs. Zec 2:5-9, 14-15a. Jer 31:10, 11-12ab, 13. Lk 9:43b-45.
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 26: Thursday of the
WENCESLAS c. 907-929 September 28 Educated by his grandmother, St. Ludmilla, Wenceslas became duke of Bohemia (in the Czech Republic) at 15, after his father’s death and an unsuccessful regency by his mother. He tried to establish the rule of law, improve education, extend Christianity and open Bohemia to the West. He ran afoul of his nobles and his brother’s ambition and was martyred.
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CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | SEPTEMBER 20, 2013
“H
Disappearing roots
ome is where we start from.” T.S. Eliot wrote that and it describes an experience that can be felt both as a freedom and as a heartache. I cite my own case: I grew up in a secondgeneration immigrant community on the Canadian prairies. My grandparents’ generation had been the first settlers in that region and everything they built, from their houses to their schools, were understandably built with what they could afford and situated along roads and railways FATHER RON they could access. They did ROLHEISER the best with what they had and didn’t have the luxury of building with long-term permanence in mind. Consequently many things of buildings that surrounded me when I was a child have since disappeared: The elementary school that I attended closed while I was still a student there. Both the building and school grounds have long ago disappeared. Wheat fields grow there now and you would never know that a school once existed on that location. The same holds true for the high school I attended. It too has disappeared, buildings and grounds replaced by grain fields. Indeed, the entire town that gave it its address has disappeared. After high school, I attended two separate seminaries and each of these too suffered the same fate; both stood empty for number of years and then were gutted by fire. The theological college I taught at for the first 15 years of my priesthood was demolished to make room for a new freeway and now operates out of new buildings on a different site. The farm that I grew up on still operates, though the house I grew up in is now abandoned and the fields rented out. Nobody in my family lives there anymore. It’s symbolic perhaps that the only building that’s still in use from my early years is the church where I worshipped as child. Every other building of my youth, adolescence, and early adulthood has disappeared. I am an orphan in terms of the buildings that nurtured me in my youth. But, in this, I’m hardly unique. All of us today, in different forms, are orphaned in this way. Already
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in 1970, Alvin Toffler, in his famous book “Future Shock,” pointed out how transience and impermanence are beginning more and more to shape our psyches, as things, people, places, knowledge, and organizations pass through our lives at an everincreasing rate. And he wrote this long before the impact of information technology began to reshape our lives much more radically. The transience and impermanence that Toffler describes in 1970 are dwarfed and taken to their square root by information technology today. By today’s standards, things, people, places, knowledge, and organizations were passing through our lives at a snail’s pace forty years ago, in 1970. Today, more than the buildings of our youth are disappearing from our lives. What’s to be said about this? What does this transience say about our lives and our times? I suspect that we’re all still sorting this out. Transience and impermanence aren’t sins, though they aren’t necessarily virtues either. For me, it seems, they’re a mixed bag, a mixed blessing. On the positive side, they’ve brought us a new freedom. For many centuries, people were too much imprisoned by the suffocating permanence of the things, places, and knowledge of their time. They had stability, but often had petrification as well. Everything held firm, but too firm, few new doors ever opened. The transience and impermanence in our lives sets us free in a way that allows us to let ourselves be nourished and blessed by our roots, even as we aren’t bound by them. But there’s a huge heartache in this as well. Constantly having the familiar disappear can also grieve the heart, and it should. It’s healthy to want to go back to visit the old houses, schools, neighborhoods and textbooks that once nurtured us. These losses of youth can be painful. But the pain of transience and impermanence in our lives also helps point us toward the things that don’t change, namely, faith, hope and love. These can never be bulldozed under, replaced by grain fields, burnt down by fire, expropriated and knocked down to make way for a new freeway, or rendered obsolete by newer software. In this world, Scripture tells us, we have no lasting city, but we are already inextricably bound up with things that do last forever. OBLATE FATHER ROLHEISER is president of the Oblate School of Theology, San Antonio, Texas.
‘Religion is not me-ligion’
ast month, I received a strange call from a woman who was angry with God for not answering her prayers. Apparently she had come across an old column I had written on prayer and wanted some information. The conversation went something like this: “Since you know so much about prayer, tell me how you can get God to help me win the lottery.” I thought, “Are you kidding me?” I felt as if this person would have snored through the Sermon on the FATHER JOHN Mount. But I felt sympathy CATOIR for her. She obviously was emotionally upset and needed to talk. I learned that her family debt was due to unjust legal fees she incurred while trying to defend her son in court. She didn’t tell me anything about the nature of the case, only about her exasperation with the legal system. She and her husband tried to borrow money, but their credit line was depleted. So they began playing the lottery and praying that God would bring them good luck. That was a year ago. They had become increasingly aggravated by God’s failure to cooperate. I took a deep breath and tried to explain that religion is not about getting God to do what we want. It is about surrendering ourselves to God’s will. Then I recited the Our Father, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” She blurted out, “What about his words, ‘Ask and you shall receive?’”
I had to smile, realizing that most people have had that feeling at one time or another in their lives, myself included. “That’s what I’m trying to tell you,” I persisted. “You have to remember that Jesus also instructed us to say, not my will, but thine be done.” Unimpressed, she went on to explain how unfair others had been to her. I listened for a while but had to interrupt. I had little hope of getting through to her, but I tried one more time. “Religion is not me-ligion,” I said. Religion means to bind oneself back to God. “Me-ligion” is more about pushing God away if he doesn’t give us what we want. To connect with God, we all have to surrender to his will, freely, sincerely and lovingly. I could feel that my words were going over like a lead balloon. “Life is a test,” I continued. “We are preparing our souls for the next life. The only people who are truly ready to enter the kingdom of God are those who accept his will and obey his teachings.”Christians spend a lifetime practicing the discipline of loving surrender. To love is to give oneself to God and to others. The emphasis is on the word: free. We give ourselves freely. “I know this has nothing to do with the lottery,” I said. “But it is part of the overall scheme of things.” She was silent. Not knowing exactly what that silence meant, I added my final point. “One thing is certain, if you ask for God’s forgiveness, and are willing to make amends, he will forgive you. That’s where ‘ask and you surely will receive’ comes in,” I said. She thanked me and hung up. I’m not sure if I helped or made the situation worse.
Programs for the happily married; tabernacle position
Q.
We have a question that we would like answered with reasons, not just words. We hear about preCana for engaged couples, the Christian Family Movement for those with children, Marriage Encounter for those with problem marriages and separate retreats for men and women. There is nothing for happily married couples who want to spend their trip to heaven together, as the unit they became when they were married. For what reason does the church not support the idea of couples being treated as one, as they strive to improve their spiritual life together? (Bluffton, S.C.) First, may I expose and explode a myth which your question seems to embrace? Marriage EncounFATHER ter is not meant for “problem KENNETH DOYLE marriages.” It is designed to make healthy marriages even healthier. Worldwide Marriage Encounter says specifically that its program is not a “substitute for counseling.” Rather, it offers a weekend experience where couples learn a technique of communication that can deepen their relationship with each other and with God. As such, it is one of several programs designed for marriage enrichment. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops offers a website (www.foryourmarriage.org) that lists some of the programs described. (One of them is Marriage Retorno, a weekend prayer experience for husband and wife facilitated by a married couple and a Catholic priest.) In addition, several dioceses offer programs that respond to your request. In my diocese, we offer a two-session workshop called Strengthening Relations that uses the standard Myers-Briggs personality test as a basis for teaching how different personality types can generate a healthy and harmonious match. When I was growing up, the tabernacle was in the front of the church on the main altar. I am upset that some Catholic churches today put our Lord in a small chapel in the back of the church. I consider that disrespectful and think that it must displease Jesus. (Bedford, Va.) Whenever a Catholic church is built or renovated, perhaps no single issue prompts more debate, or stronger feelings, than the location of the tabernacle. Part of this has to do with the fact that church guidelines allow some discretion. The General Instruction on the Roman Missal says in No. 315 that the tabernacle may be located “either in the sanctuary, apart from the altar of celebration ... or even in some chapel suitable for the private adoration and prayer of the faithful and organically connected to the church and readily noticeable by the Christian faithful.” Many older Catholics may remember the tabernacle’s having been in the center of the altar of sacrifice. The general instruction cautions against that so as not to distract from the celebration of the Mass. The two purposes, historically, of the tabernacle were to reserve the Blessed Sacrament for distribution to the sick and dying and to offer the opportunity for quiet adoration of the Eucharist when Mass was not being held. In No. 314, the general instruction amplifies its guideline by clarifying that the tabernacle should be located “in a part of the church that is truly noble, prominent, conspicuous, worthily decorated and suitable for prayer.” Pope Benedict XVI, in his 2007 exhortation “Sacramentum Caritatis” was even more specific, stipulating that “the place where the eucharistic species are reserved, marked by a sanctuary lamp, should be readily visible to everyone entering the church.” Within these parameters of universal church law, the placing of the tabernacle falls within the discretion of a local bishop, and some bishops have chosen to issue guidelines in this regard.
QUESTION CORNER
A.
Q. A.
Send questions to Father Kenneth Doyle at askfatherdoyle@ gmail.com and 40 Hopewell St., Albany, NY, 12208.
18 FROM THE FRONT
CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | SEPTEMBER 20, 2013
PROJECT RACHEL: Seeking ‘peace and reconciliation’ over lives cut short FROM PAGE 1
William J. Justice was the principal celebrant of the bilingual morning Mass held at the cemetery’s mausoleum and the healing liturgy that followed at the outdoor Rachel Mourning Shrine. The shrine recalls the mourning of the Old Testament’s Rachel as described in Jeremiah 31:15-17. “As we write the names of our lost little ones, let us remember the parable of the mustard seed which after being planted in the ground, died. But from it grew forth a beautiful, vibrant tree,” he said as each mourner placed a leaf bearing the name of a child into a small, open-earth grave at the Rachel Shrine. Project Rachel is a nationwide, diocesan-led ministry founded over 20 years ago by Vicki Thorn, a Respect Life director in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee who had witnessed the self-destructive trajectory of a friend who had aborted a child. Project Rachel can be a path to peace and reconciliation for those suffering post-abortion anguish. According to San Francisco Project Rachel coordinator Mary Ann Schwab, the loss of young life is difficult to recover from no matter what the cause. “We pray together today, whatever the circumstances of our loss,” said Schwab, a social worker
‘… Rachel mourns her children. She refuses to be consoled because her children are no more. Thus says the Lord: Cease your cries of mourning, wipe the tears from your eyes. The sorrow you have shown shall have its reward. There is hope for your future.’ JEREMIAH 31:15-17 (PHOTO BY CHRISTINA M. GRAY/CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO)
Mourners gather at Holy Cross Cemetery, Colma, on Sept. 14 for a healing liturgy at the cemetery’s Project Rachel shrine. The shrine recalls the mourning of the Old Testament’s Rachel as described in Jeremiah 31:15-17. and dedicated pioneer in Respect Life work dating back to 1973. She has led the archdiocese’s volunteer-run Project Rachel ministry since 2003. Sheela Zavala of Brisbane attended the service with her husband, Jorge. She smiled, but held a protective hand to her belly when asked about the baby they expect in January. They plan to name the child -– a boy – Daniel. Today, however, they
remember the daughter lost in miscarriage two years ago, and continue to heal from the loss. “There is still a longing,” said Jorge. “We call her Marie because her due date was on the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel,” said Sheela who admitted that losing their first child was incredibly hard on both her and her husband. “But we had hope because of our faith and prayer.”
Project Rachel is rooted in the knowledge that the lost promise of a child deeply affects not only the mother but also fathers, grandparents and members of the extended family. Maribel Martinez of Menlo Park can vouch for that. “I am here to remember my niece, my brother’s baby girl,” she said. “It helps to be here today.” For more information about Project Rachel, contact Mary Ann Schwab at (415) 717-6428 or email masfs@mindspring.com.
POPE: ‘The church will not collapse’ LIBERATION: Clarifying church’s commitment to voiceless, powerless FROM PAGE 1
the Basilica of St. John Lateran, the cathedral of Rome. Pope Francis devoted the first part of the meeting, which lasted more than two hours, to answering a letter he had received a few days earlier from an elderly parish priest, writing of his struggles as a pastor. “The letter is beautiful, I was moved,” the pope said, speaking without a text. “The letter is simple. The priest is mature and he shared with me one of his feelings: fatigue.” While voicing sympathy, the pope said that such an experience is an inevitable part of priestly life. “When a priest is in contact with his people, he gets tired,” he said, according to a report by Vatican Radio. “When a priest is not in contact with his people, he gets tired, but in a bad way, and to fall asleep he needs to take a pill.” “The people have so many demands, so many demands, but they are the demands of God,” the pope said. “That makes one seriously tired, right? And one doesn’t need pills.” As he has done on other occasions, Pope Francis urged priests to make their churches more welcoming, suggesting, among other ideas, that marriage courses for engaged couples be scheduled at more convenient times. The pope offered success stories from his native Argentina, including one about a counterintuitive technique of fundraising that appealed to natural generosity. “One priest – not from my diocese, from another – once told me: ‘But I don’t make them pay anything, not even for Mass intentions. I have a box there, and they leave what they want. But, Father, I get almost twice what I got before!’” According to the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, the pope urged the priests to keep alive the memory of
FROM PAGE 1
(CNS PHOTO/PAUL HARING)
Pope Francis leaves the Basilica of St. John Lateran after a meeting with clergy from the Diocese of Rome Sept. 16. the beginning of their vocations, born in the love of Jesus, as an antidote to what he called “spiritual worldliness.” In an 11-page document that he assigned the priests to read before the meeting, Pope Francis defined spiritual worldliness as an “anthropocentric attitude” which aims at human spiritual perfection “instead of the glory of God.” This temptation, then-Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio wrote in 2008, is “infinitely more devastating” to the church than “simply moral worldliness,” such as that exemplified by libertine popes in the past. The pope reassured the priests that the church continued to produce saints, some of them widely recognized, such as Blessed Teresa of Kolkata, and many others unheralded. He pointed to the example of an Argentine woman who had recently written him a letter on a paper napkin, recounting her efforts to support a drug-addicted son with her job as a cleaner in the Buenos Aires airport. “I dare to say that the church has never been so well as it is today,” he said, in spite of scandals such as that over clergy sex abuse. “The church will not collapse, I am sure, I am sure. “Sanctity is stronger than scandals,” he said.
During the 1980s, the Vatican’s doctrinal office under then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict, issued two major documents on liberation theology. The documents praised the movement’s concern for the poor and for justice, but condemned a tendency to mix Marxist social analysis and concepts such as “class struggle” with religious commitments to end poverty and injustice. The consequences of theologians adopting Marxist methods, Pope Benedict later told Brazilian bishops, included “rebellion, division, dissent, offense (and) anarchy,” which were still “creating great suffering in your diocesan communities and a serious loss of vital energy.” On another occasion, he told an interviewer that the “politicization of the faith” by some liberation theologians had contributed to the “widespread exodus” of Latin American Catholics to Pentecostal and other Protestant churches. Many Jesuits embraced liberation theology as part of what a 1975 decree by the order called their “commitment to promote justice and enter into solidarity with the voiceless and the powerless.” Not surprisingly, any signs of sympathy with secular ideas of revolution drew concern from the Vatican. In 2007, the doctrinal congregation warned of “erroneous or dangerous propositions” in the work of Jesuit Father Jon Sobrino. The following year, Pope Benedict found it necessary to ask the Jesuits as an order to reaffirm their adherence to church teaching on a number of controver-
sial questions, including “some aspects of the theology of liberation.” As superior of the Jesuits’ Argentine province from 1973 to 1979, then-Father Jorge Mario Bergoglio discouraged politicization among his priests, especially during the military dictatorship that took power in Argentina in 1976. In the polarized atmosphere within the order, he was hardly counted as a friend of liberation theology. But the future pope’s pastoral work for and with the poor was constant, and would eventually find expression at the Fifth General Conference of the Bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean, held in 2007 in Aparecida, Brazil. The conference’s concluding document, of which then-Cardinal Bergoglio was a principal author, did not use the term “liberation theology,” but its strong words about the “building of a just and fraternal society” that ensures “health, food, education, housing and work for all” reflect the spirit of the movement in its orthodox version. Pope Francis’ election was thus a powerful affirmation of the belief that the pursuit of social justice is a necessary consequence of Christian faith. But less than nine months before the papal conclave, a less heralded appointment had already signaled that this belief, as formulated in liberation theology, enjoyed favor at the church’s highest levels. When Pope Benedict named Archbishop Muller to head the doctrinal office, in July 2012, he surely knew that the man he was making the highest custodian of church teaching after the pope himself was an admirer and co-author of none other than Father Gutierrez.
ARTS & LIFE 19
CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | SEPTEMBER 20, 2013
‘One-stop shopping guide’ to Catholicism REVIEWED BY AGOSTINO BONO CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
“THE CATHOLIC CHURCH: WHAT EVERYONE NEEDS TO KNOW” BY JOHN L. ALLEN JR. Oxford University Press (New York, 2013). 298 pp. $16.95. In a gargantuan effort, John Allen chronicles the Catholic Church’s history, doctrine, discipline, institutional structures, population shifts, divisions, tensions, diversity, problems and prospects in “The Catholic Church: What Everyone Needs to Know.” The one-volume work combines fact-filled pages with succinct writing. In good journalistic fashion, Allen avoids taking sides on much-debated issues and doesn’t try to solve the church’s current problems. Instead, the book provides factual data for framing issues and for understanding how Catholicism got to where it is today. This framing should help readers evaluate future church actions and evolutions as it wrestles with internal problems and with communicating its religious message to a multifaceted world. For non-Catholics and lax Catholics wanting more than a catechism understanding of the church, this is book is an excellent start. Allen compiled the book after decades covering Catholicism as a correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter and Vatican analyst for CNN. He calls it a “one-stop shopping guide” to the church. But the book also presents an unconventional view of the church, breaking stereotypes by often stressing the diversity and universality of an institution with members who span the globe. Allen calls Catholicism the “McDonald’s of organized religion,” offering a standard menu supplemented by variety geared to local tastes. Some, though, may think that Allen takes incul-
A FUNDRAISING EVENT TO SUPPORT
turation too far when he says that Catholic grassroots culture is just as evident in a topless beach in Rio de Janeiro as in the Brazilian city’s cathedral. Given the church’s demographics and gender distribution, Allen notes that the “typical Catholic” is not a white priest living in Rome but a Brazilian mother of four as Brazil is the largest Catholic country population-wise and the Catholic population is rapidly shifting to the developing world commonly referred to as the “South.” This population shift away from the developed Western world will strongly influence the church’s theology and worldview, Allen notes, as Southern Catholics tend to be more conservative on abortion, gay marriage and family life; while at the same time more leftist regarding social justice issues and the global imbalance of political and economic power favoring the West. The book has sections on church history, theology, worship and hierarchy. But there are also parts devoted to contemporary church scandals and how the church copes with the always hot-button issues of money, sex and politics. Unfortunately, the book was written before the surprise resignation of Pope Benedict XVI and the groundbreaking election of Argentine Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio as Pope Francis, the first pontiff from the South. Hopefully, a revised edition will be published incorporating this historic passing of the baton and how it once again brought renewed international scrutiny of one of the world’s most durable organizations. BONO is a retired CNS staff writer.
SCRIPTURE SEARCH Gospel for September 22, 2013 Luke 16:1-13 Following is a word search based on the Gospel reading for the 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C: a crafty person lives by the world’s rules. The words can be found in all directions in the puzzle. RICH MAN MY MASTER WELCOME ME FIFTY GENERATION WEALTH SERVE
PROPERTY TAKING OLIVE WHEAT LIGHT ETERNAL HATE ONE
I HEAR STRONG SIT DOWN DISHONEST FRIENDS TRUST DESPISE
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Founder of Moratorium Campaign to END THE DEATH PENALTY
FRIDAY, SEPT. 27, 2013 7:00 p.m. VIP Reception with Sister Helen starts at 6:00 p.m.
Notre Dame DE Namur University
Order tickets in advance $15.00 at the door $20.00
1500 Ralston Ave., Belmont, California
CUNNINGHAM MEMORIAL CHAPEL
STUDENTS $10.00 at the door $15.00 VIP Reception and Event with Sister Helen (limited space) $40.00 at the door $50.00
Dedicated to the rehabilitation of incarcerated juveniles, in probation, or parole; providing spiritual support, housing, education, and employment assistance.
Please mail in checks to: Comunidad San Dimas Inc. P.O. Box 40638 San Francisco, CA 94140-0638
For more information contact:
Order with credit card at www.SanDimasMinistry.org/ Sister Helen Prejean
CSD - Julio Escobar at (415) 244-5594 or email escobarj@sandimasministry.org
By Telephone: (415) 762-2300
FREE PARKING
NDNU - Jim McGarry at (650) 508-4120 or email jmcgarry@ndnu.edu
Author of Dead Man Walking and THE DEATHS OF INNOCENTS Sister Helen’s books, will be available for purchase and autographing, cash or checks ONLY.
All donations are gratefully accepted at Chase Bank #405572400. Thank you.
20 COMMUNITY
CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | SEPTEMBER 20, 2013
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(PHOTO BY CHRISTINA M. GRAY/CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO)
Around the archdiocese SALESIAN JUBILEES: On Sept. 8, the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Sts. Peter and Paul Parish community celebrated anniversaries of religious profession of its pastor, Salesian Father John Itzaina, (50 years of religious life) and the oldest living confrere among U.S. Salesians; Father Austin Conterno, (75 years of profession, 98 years old). The main celebrant of the Mass was Salesian Western Province vice provincial Father Thomas Prendeville. The entrance procession included banners and members of several parish sodalities and organizations including Madonna del Lume, Madonna della Guardia, Madonna d’Addolorata, the Holy Name of Jesus Society, the Young Men’s Institute and the Society of Santa Gemma. Tributes were given by parishioner and finance chair Alan Smith, CCD instructor and school alumnus Patrick Gee and unofficial parish historian Alessandro Baccari. School principal Lisa Harris and Salesian Sisters parish superior Sister Debbie Walker,
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MISSION DOLORES BASILICA: Pictured Sept. 14 at the gala celebrating the 100th anniversary of the placing of the basilica’s cornerstone are, from left, Laxmon Balchendani, parish sacristan Raju Kumar, Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone, Simi Kumar and Chandra Balchendani. Cardinal William J. Levada and retired Archbishop George Niederauer participated in the commemoration and liturgical celebration.
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ST. THOMAS MORE PARISH: Seventh grade students from the San Francisco parish school, confirmed April 26 by Auxiliary Bishop Robert W. McElroy, dispatched school supplies for needy children in Africa through Develop Africa, which works directly with schools to get supplies into the hands of as many students as possible. All grades pitched in, filling more than two dozen boxes.
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“threw a bash in the church auditorium that will be remembered for the next 50 years,” the parish announced.
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COMMUNITY 21
CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | SEPTEMBER 20, 2013
Honoring Mercy ‘visionaries’ of compassion 2 sisters helped create Catherine’s Center, an SVdP ministry for incarcerated women Mercy Sister Marguerite Buchanan and Mercy Sister Suzanne Toolan, both religious for 60 years, will be honored at a concert at Mercy High School, San Francisco on Oct. 6 for their ministry as the “visionaries” of Catherine’s Center in South San Francisco, a St. Vincent de Paul Society of San Mateo County ministry helping formerly incarcerated women. The concert will feature the choirs of Mercy High School, San Francisco and Mercy High School, Burlingame, where both sisters taught and Sister Marguerite also served as principal. “We honor Suzanne and Marguerite because they are women of courage and vision who have helped to establish this important ministry,” said Dotty McCrea, principal of Mercy, San Francisco. Sister Suzanne said the celebration joins “two ministries very close to my heart: the two Mercy high schools, where I spent lovely years teaching.” A sacred music composer known internationally, Sister Suzanne said she “wrote most of the liturgical music I am honored to have had sung in many places throughout the world” for the students at the two schools.” In fact, much of Sister Suzanne’s works, including the iconic “I Am the Bread of Life,” were first sung by Mercy, Burlingame and Mercy, San Francisco students. Serving
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Mercy Sisters Marguerite Buchanan, left, and Suzanne Toolan are being honored as the “visionaries” behind Catherine’s Center, a St. Vincent de Paul Society of San Mateo County ministry for incarcerated women.
ing to meditate required our ongoing support,” Sister Marguerite said. “It was there that we saw the tragic statistic of recidivism played out before our very eyes.” Statistics show that eight out of 10 men and women are not able to have success after release from incarceration; they want a new life but lack the skills or support to make it happen. “Sister Suzanne and I wished to make a difference in these precious lives and chose to work with post-incarcerated women,” Sister Marguerite said, noting women who have completed the Catherine’s Center program have gained back their lives “and become reunited with their children and family and become giving members of society.” Catherine’s Center women speak to the students from both Mercy schools, Sister Marguerite said, “about the very real dangers of experimenting with drugs and alcohol. Their stories deeply affect the high school students and serve as a strong deterrent.” The schools also support Catherine’s Center in fundraising efforts.
“I wrote ‘Bread of Life’ in 1966 for the National Catholic Music Educators Association,” Sister Suzanne said. “The Mercy, Burlingame girls sang it at St. Cecilia Church for Benediction.” Sister Marguerite recalled the beginnings of Catherine’s Center 10 years ago. She and Sister Suzanne were invited to lead centering prayer workshops at San Quentin State Prison. “We found that prisoners’ interest in continu-
“When You Believe,” a musical production of Mercy High School, San Francisco and Mercy High School, Burlingame, Oct. 6, 4 p.m., Mercy High School, San Francisco Theatre, 3250 19th Ave., San Francisco. Limited parking is available on campus with additional parking on upper Junipero Serra. Tickets sold at door. Suggested donation $10 adults/ $5 children. Refreshments will be provided. Teresa Abney, (415) 334-7941 or tabney@mercyhs.org.
(PHOTO COURTESY MICHAEL COLLOPY)
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22 CALENDAR
CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | SEPTEMBER 20, 2013
SATURDAY, SEPT. 21
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HANDICAPABLES MASS: Father Kirk Ullery, chaplain, is principal celebrant of Mass at noon, Room C, St. Mary’s Cathedral Event Center, Gough Street at Geary Boulevard, San Francisco. Lunch follows. Volunteers are always welcome to assist in this ongoing tradition of more than 40 years. Joanne Borodin, (415) 239-4865.
THURSDAY, SEPT. 26 MISSION TOUR: St. Robert’s Grownups two-day trip to six missions, overnight stay, all food and lodging included in $200/$220 per person fee. (650) 589-2800.
SATURDAY, SEPT. 28 GALA: St. Dunstan School’s 60th anniversary evening and dinner dance, 6-11 p.m., Green Hills Country Club, Millbrae, with auction and dancing. $100 per person, mailed to St. Dunstan School, Gabrielle O’Neil, 1150 Magnolia Ave., Millbrae 94030, or contact Gabrielle O’Neil, (650) 201-9631. For program sponsorships, Lisa Disco, bldisco64@gmail.com. MISSIONS TOUR: Visit Missions Solano, San Rafael Arcangel, San Francisco de Asis, plus Cline Vineyards, first location of the Sonoma mission. $85 tickets include transportation to and from St. Kevin, guided tours of each of the missions, lunch, beverages along the way, all admission fees, taxes, service charges, gratuities. Departs
SUNDAY, SEPT. 29 ANNIVERSARY MASS: St. Matthew Church, One Notre Dame Ave. at El Camino Real, San Mateo. 10:30 a.m. with Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone as principal celebrant. A parish picnic follows at noon in San Mateo’s Central Park. (650) 343-1373, ext. 139.
MONDAY, SEPT. 30 GOLF: Capuchin Golf Tournament at Green Hills Country Club, 500 Ludeman Lane, Millbrae. Registration 10 a.m. with noon tee-off for 18-hole scramble. Tickets at $300 include greens fee, cart, lunch, beverages all day, tee prizes, cocktails and dinner at the club. Dinner only tickets $50. Proceeds benefit the Capuchin Franciscans charities and programs of the province. Bill Mason, (650) 906-1040; Roy Nickolai, (415) 760-6584; Chris Ronan, (650) 745-6330.
WEDNESDAY, OCT. 2 SEPARATED, DIVORCED: Meeting takes place first and third Wednesdays, 7:30 p.m., St. Stephen Parish O’Reilly Center, 23rd Avenue at Eucalyptus, San Francisco. Groups are part of the Separated and Divorced Catholic ministry in the archdiocese and include prayer, introductions, sharing. It is a drop-in support group. Jesuit Father Al Grosskopf, (415) 422-6698, grosskopf@usfca.edu.
FRIDAY, OCT. 4 ASSUMPTA AWARD GALA: An evening honoring retired San Francisco Archbishop George Niederauer at St. Mary’s Cathedral, Gough Street at Geary Archbishop Boulevard, George San Francisco, Niederauer featuring fine wines, gourmet cuisine, live classical and jazz music. Tickets $150. Contact jcarrillo@stmarycathedralsf.org; (415) 567-2020. The event also serves as the opening of the cathedral Festival of Flowers, Oct. 4-6; www.cathedralflowers.org.
FRIDAY, OCT. 4 FIRST FRIDAY: The Contemplatives of St. Joseph offer Mass at Mater Dolorosa Church, 307 Willow Ave., South San Francisco, 7 p.m. followed by healing service and personal blessing with St. Joseph oil from Oratory of St. Joseph, Montreal. PRO-LIFE: Volunteers to witness to the message of life outside of Planned Parenthood, 35 Baywood Ave., San Mateo, Monday-Friday, 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. An opportunity to pray, offer help and provide information verbally or with pamphlets according to the situation. Jessica, (650) 572-1468, www. sanmateoprolife.com.
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GATSBY GARDEN PARTY: Most Holy Redeemer Parish, 100 Diamond St., San Francisco to benefit St. James School, 6-10 p.m. Live and silent auctions, wine and champagne, hearty hors d’oeuvres. $35. Constance Dalton, (415) 642-6130, Dalton_constance@yahoo.com.
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DIVINE MERCY: Feast of St. Faustina, 9:15 a.m. eucharistic adoration in the chapel of Star of the Sea Church, 8th Avenue and Geary Boulevard, San Francisco. Hour of mercy 3 p.m.; confessions 3:15-4:15 p.m.; Mass 4:30; a 45-minute free video on the life of St. Faustina and the history of the Divine Mercy in the school auditorium, with light refreshments at 5:30. konopaski@yahoo.com; (415) 668-9800.
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ANNIVERSARY DANCE: St. Matthew School Auditorium, 6-10 p.m., 910 S. El Camino Real, next to parish church, San Mateo. Tickets at $75 include dinner, dancing, cocktails, auction. www. stmatthew-parish.org/150th; (650) 343 1373, ext. 139.
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ST. BRIGID 125TH: St. Brigid School, San Francisco, celebrates its 125th anniversary with food, entertainment and a look at the school’s marvelous history, 11:30 a.m.-5 p.m. at St. Brigid School, 2250 Franklin St., San Francisco. Tickets for food and beverage purchases available at door. www. saintbrigidsf.org, (415) 673-4523.
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CALENDAR 23
CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | SEPTEMBER 20, 2013
SUNDAY, OCT. 6
SUNDAY, OCT. 20
LIFE CHAIN: Hold a pro-life sign along Park Presidio Boulevard in San Francisco, 2-4 p.m., Geary Boulevard and Park Presidio, sponsors provide signs, parking in Star of the Sea Church parking lot, enter on 8th Avenue. konopaski@yahoo.com, (415) 668-9800. BENEFIT CONCERT: “When You Believe,� a musical production of Mercy High School, San Francisco and Mercy High School, Burlingame honoring Mercy Sisters Marguerite Buchanan and Suzanne Toolan benefiting Catherine’s Center, 4 p.m., Mercy High School, San Francisco Theatre, 3250 19th Ave., San Francisco. Limited parking available on campus with additional parking on upper Junipero Serra. Tickets sold at door. Suggested donation $10 adults, $5 children. Refreshments provided. Teresa Abney, (415) 334-7941, tabney@mercyhs.org.
FRIDAY, OCT. 11 3-DAY FESTIVAL: “Surfin’ Safari,� St Gregory Church, 2715 Hacienda, San Mateo, Oct 11, 12, 13, carnival rides, games, family bingo, food and entertainment for the whole family, Saturday night dinner of surf ‘n turf from 5-7 p.m. and Sunday pancake breakfast, 8-10:30 a.m. Friday 6-10 p.m., Saturday 2–10 p.m., Sunday 1-6 p.m. (650) 345-8506. AFRICAN FAITH: Blessed John Paul II Speaks to Africa,� with Jesuit Father Stephen Nduati, 6:30 p.m., Pauline Books & Media, Redwood City. Discussion and social will follow presentation. (215) 847-3662. VOCATIONS RETREAT: Our Lady of New Clairvaux Trappist-Cistercian, Vina, invite single Catholic men age 35 and under to discern God’s further call for their lives to a “Life Discernment Weekend� Oct. 11-13. Share in the monastic life for the weekend, pray the Liturgy of the Hours in the Abbey church and share a meal with the monks. Conferences on how to listen; theology of vocation; monastic
YOUTH MASS: Archdiocese of San Francisco Youth Mass, 2:30 p.m., St. Anne of the Sunset Church, 850 Judah St. at Funston, San Francisco. San Francisco Auxiliary Bishop William Bishop William J. J. Justice Justice is principal celebrant and homilist. Ynez Lizarraga, associate director for youth ministry and catechesis, LizarragaY@sfarchdiocese.org. VINCENTIAN FAMILY MASS: The St. Vincent de Paul Society will gather with Vincentian family members at the Cathedral of St. Mary of The Assumption, Gough Street at Geary Boulevard, Archbishop San Francisco, Salvatore J. to celebrate the Cordileone 200th anniversary of their founder, Blessed Frederick Ozanam. The program, which features excerpts from the movie
prayer and monks sharing their experience included. Rooms and meals provided in monastery guesthouse. Abbey covers costs. www.newclairvaux.org; Brother Christopher, (530) 839-2161.
SATURDAY, OCT. 12 GOT LOVE?: What love is, the meaning of sex, and having great, fulfilling relationships: Expert Catholic speakers, Mass, powerful workshops, catered lunch, info tables, vendors, raffles, and confession available. Program most suited for high school through young adult age men and women. Registration $30. Speak-
“Les Miserables� will begin at 3 p.m. with registration at 2:30 p.m. followed by Mass with Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone as principal celebrant, followed by a simple supper. Contact the SVdP website for your county for details. San Francisco, www. svdp-sf.org; San Mateo, www. svdpsanmateoco.org; Marin, www.vinnies.org.
FRIDAY, OCT. 25 RETIRED PRIESTS: St. John Vianney Luncheon honoring retired priests, 11:30 a.m., St. Mary’s Cathedral, Gough Street at Geary Boulevard, San Francisco: Proceeds benefit Priests Retirement Msgr. Harry Fund of the ArchSchlitt diocese of San Francisco. (415) 614-5580 or email development@sfarchdiocese.org for information regarding tickets and sponsorship opportunities. Msgr. Harry Schlitt, retired chief administrator for the Archdiocese of San Francisco, is among those being honored.
ers include: Charlie Aeschliman, former Navy SEAL, on “Commando Catholicism and Spiritual Warfare�; Mary Bielski, national speaker and founder ALL4HIM, on “Exposing Lies, Unveiling Truth about Love, Sex and Relationships�; Matt Fradd, from Catholic Answers and featured on EWTN, on “Dispelling Sexual Myths, Manhood and True Freedom�; Patricia Sandoval, from Rachel’s Vineyard and seen on EWTN, on “Healing from The Culture of Death.� Day begins with Mass at 9 a.m. at Church of the Nativity just next door to Sobrato Pavilion, Nativity School, Oak Grove Avenue and Laurel Street, Menlo Park, and continues until 4:30 p.m. (650) 269-6279 or email info@ gotlove.info.
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ORGAN RECITAL: Mission Dolores Basilica, 16th Street at Dolores, San Francisco, 4 p.m., second Sunday of every month except December and January. Admission free and free-will donations are accepted. The concerts commemorate the 100th anniversary of the basilica with a cornerstone laid in 1913 and completed in 1918.
FRIDAY, OCT. 18 3-DAY FESTIVAL: “County Fair and Fall Festival,� Oct. 18, 19, 20, St. Dunstan Parish, 1133 Broadway, Millbrae. Carnival rides, games, food, drink, chili cook-off, pie eating contest, raffle, silent auction. Champagne brunch on Sunday: Friday 5 p.m.-10 p.m.; Saturday noon-10 p.m.; Sunday noon–8 p.m. (650) 697-4730, secretary@saintdunstanchurch.org. 3-DAY RETREAT: “Beginning Experience Weekend,� Jesuit Retreat Center of Los Altos for widowed, separated and divorced taking a step toward closure. Includes two- night stay, meals, materials. $260. Scholarships available. (650) 692-4337, sjbeginexp@aol. com, www.sanjosebe.com.
SATURDAY, OCT. 19 AUGUSTINIAN PERSPECTIVE: Augustinian monk Walter Hilton is the focus of Paulist Father Terry Ryan’s talk, 9 a.m.-noon, Old St. Mary’s Paulist Center, 614 Grant Ave. at California, San Francisco. Coffee and treats begin at 9 a.m. The workshop is free but free-will donations welcome. (415) 288-3844.
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ROSARY RALLY: Rosary rally with Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone among prayer leaders, noon-2 p.m., U.N. Plaza, Seventh and Market streets, San Francisco. Celebration includes Marian hymns, recitation of the rosary and Benediction. Everyone invited. info@rosaryrallysf.com; www. rosaryrallysf.com.
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NOVENAS
Saturday, October 12
Fall Retreat for Young Adult Men & Women (College-40) Saturday, October 12, 2013 — 9:00 AM- 3:00 PM
PUBLISH A NOVENA
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LIGHT OF FAITH
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Name Address Phone MC/VISA # Exp.
Dominican Sisters of MSJ Motherhouse 43326 Mission Blvd. (Entrance on Mission Tierra Place) Fremont, CA 94539
Presenters: RETREAT TEAM FREE WILL OFFERING • RSVP DEADLINE: MON. OCT. 7 RSVP blessings@msjdominicans.org or 510 933-6335
Select One Prayer: ❑ St. Jude Novena to SH
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❑ Prayer to St. Jude
❑ Prayer to the Holy Spirit
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Prayer to the Blessed Virgin never known to fail. Most beautiful flower of Mt. Carmel Blessed Mother of the Son of God, assist me in my need. Help me and show me you are my mother. Oh Holy Mary, Mother of God, Queen of Heaven and earth. I humbly beseech you from the bottom of my heart to help me in this need. Oh Mary, conceived without sin. Pray for us (3X). Holy Mary, I place this cause in your hands (3X). Say prayers 3 days. M.R.
Prayer to the Holy Spirit Holy Spirit, you who make me see everything and who shows me the way to reach my ideal. You who give me the divine gift of forgive and forget the wrong that is done to me. I, in this short dialogue, want to thank you for everything and confirm once more that I never want to be separated from you no matter how great the material desires may be. I want to be with you and my loved ones in your perpetual glory. Amen. You may publish this as soon as your favor is granted. M.R.
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